Fall of the Flightless
by Missy-Dedodakes
Summary: ...I don't know *how* this happens... Whatever, took long enough to update, it's been one day under a month.
1. Chapter 1

**Fall of the flightless**

**My new story! Yay! Yep, it's about Rondana… I have 17 stories now, and only 4 of them have anything to do with her (I think). Considering other people are writing hoards of stories about their OCs, I figured I deserved this. :D**

**I'll be using other peoples OCs in this, but this isn't a massive OC story or anything, so yeah… **

**As of now, I'm using Lee (PinkPanther9.7), Tigger (Mysgrl7), and Shadow (ShadowQueen25). If you want me to use any other OCs just put it in review…**

**Except for Shadow (she's in the Storm Hawks, and the Storm Hawks kinda have to be in the first chapter) none of them are in the first chapter though. Sorry, heh... but they'll all be in the second, plus anyone who wants their ocs to be in it.**

**Okay. On with the story.**

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_In the world of Atmos, flight is essential. Flight represents was Atmos even __**is**__- people are named after birds, they ride skimmers that soar above the skyline, they live on Terras above the clouds._

_With this comes many troubles, but flying can be a way to avoid them._

_So what happens to the flightless? What happens to the dodo in a flock of hawks?_

_The dodo goes extinct. And then the ravens and crows take over…_

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Because not everyone can fly. Then the skies would be too overpopulated.

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"I'd like to apply for a squadron,"

The cool air conditioned- well, _air_- kept the room cool inside the Sky Knight Council Headquarter building. A girl with just-past shoulder length, crimped-esque black hair and dark blue eyes, wearing a colonial appearing dress, stood before the Council. Around her was a group of people- a tall, lank, brown haired guy wearing a- _snicker- _ponytail, a similar looking kid next to him, only he was blonde and looked peeved with the first one, arms folded across his chest, mouth in a straight line. Next to the blonde was another, tweenie girl in a bumblegum pop colored dress who kept on a neutral look, and a muscular figure next to her with cropped black hair. He was grinning madly.

The Sky Knight Council took one look at the teenagers and snorted.

The leader didn't even have to remove his glasses to tell that except for the black haired guy they were all under sixteen. He chuckled and said, "You're a bit young, are you?"

At this the black haired girl grinned. "Not quite. I'm old enough to lead them,"

He laughed again. "How so?"

She gave him a knowing smile. "I'm five hundred years old," she said, almost in a sickly sweet voice.

His mouth fell open.

Ashelle Queneture was supposed to be dead…

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"NOO!"

Stork clawed the floor. Aerrow held his legs and pulled back again.

"I'm sorry, we have to go-"

"I'M NOT GOING BACK THERE!"

Stork clawed the floor again, trying to reach the controls so he could steer away from their projected course: Terra Pathologica. He was _not, _by any means, going to that disease Terra of doom…

Piper sighed. "Stork, don't make this difficult…"

Shadow picked up his happy place helmet from the shelf. "Do you need this?"

He nodded slowly, clearly panicking. Shadow placed it gingerly on his head. He closed his eyes, fell back on the floor, and smiled.

Aerrow let go of his legs. "Uh, wow…"

"I still don't understand that Merb," Shadow pointed out.

Everyone nodded in agreement.

"So, why are we going to Pathologica anyway?" Junko asked, walking up to the group.

"There's a lot of suspicious activity out there," Aerrow began.

"Specify?" Piper asked.

"Remember Ashelle Queneture?"

The group remembered her, of course. Piper was the one who had harnessed the oblivion crystal to revive the queen in the first place.

"…yes,"

"Well, they're saying she's trying to make a squadron on the Terra," Aerrow added.

"But she's _thirteen-"_

"And five hundred years," Aerrow said. "She was in oblivion for five hundred years,"

He leaned against the wall.

"I hate loopholes…" Piper said and groaned.

"So, Storm Hawks, do we have a mission?"

Finn looked at him strangely. "What's the mission?"

Aerrow sighed. "If Ashelle succeeds with that, she'll have Atmosia wired. Imagine a power-mad queen having the Sky Knight Council back her up on whatever she does. She invaded Terra Saharr before the oblivion incident, and that wasn't even with their support,"

"In that case… we have a mission!"

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"When is this piece of crap going to come _down?!_"

Ashlyn Markowitz stood on a ladder inside a small, wooden house, with a spatula trying to pry what looked like a glue patty of sorts off the ceiling. She shot a glare at an older man working at a desk below.

"_Why_?!"

Jim shrugged. "It wasn't my fault that thing got on the ceiling!"

Ash gave him a look. "Yes, it is,"

"Okay, I'm back!" There was the sound of footsteps rushing up the stairs and a dark haired girl ran in. She looked at Ashlyn.

"It's still not off, is it?"

Ash glared at Jim again. Rondana laughed.

"We have a notice," she said, and put the mail down. "From Populus Pathologicus,"

Ashlyn jumped down from the ladder. "Let me see that!" She grabbed it and skimmed the page. Her face fell.

"What is it?" Jim asked.

"They're making a _Sky Knight Squadron. _For Terra Pathologica," Ashlyn said. "And guess who's going to be the Sky Knight? _Ashelle, _of all people. This is impossible."

"Apparently not," Rondana said, and groaned. "We really are doomed…"

"That we are,"

"Jim!"


	2. Why it's called

**Chapter 2**

Back in a large, lopsided, brown-grey building in Populus Pathologicus, a girl dropped a huge stack of papers onto a table with a thud.

A blonde ten year old who was sitting nearby- _Kellesey_- jumped. "What on Atmos is that?!"

"Applications,"

Ashelle gave no further explanation. She sat down, grabbed a pen and one of the papers from the stack, and started filling it out.

"…applications?"

Kellesey gave her a look. Ashelle looked up.

"According to the Council, we need to fill out these forms and turn them in. _Then_ we become a squadron,"

Kellesey stared at the sheer amount of papers. Her eyes boggled, it was at least ten inches thick.

"Are they _kidding_?"

Ashelle shook her head and sighed. She leaned over to continue on the papers. "You need to help me out on these,"

"No way,"

"You want to be a squadron or not?"

Kellesey groaned and grabbed a paper.

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Two golden eyed, black haired teenagers slowly walked up a mountain. "They didn't have to make it so inaccessible, did they?"

Scarlett shrugged. Taking a skimmer would have been easier, but around Terra Pathologica, skimmers were rare, so it was safer this way. What creeped her (and whoever other foreigners ever showed up here) was the constant threat of infection.

What had happened was simple. As soon as Jim Harvel, Rondana and Ashlyn had heard about what was going on with Ashelle, they called backup. Ashelle as a Sky Knight could be suicide for this Terra.

"Why _did_ they call us anyway?" Kai asked, not necessarily to anyone in particular. "I mean, if Ashelles a Sky Knight, that's bad, but it _is_ the Council, kind of difficult to control…"

"We could try," Scarlett said, meaning trying to fight the Council. "The Rock Hearts and the Storm Hawks have done it,"

"Speaking of Rock Hearts, what happened to Aladd?" Kai asked.

Scarlett shrugged, but laughed as well, remembering Aladd and his constant fangirl encounters. "I have no idea,"

The two reached a clearing, where a small house stood. "Hmm. Nice place."

The door opened before they even made it to the mat. "Hey!" A familiar dark haired girl ran out.

"Hey, Rondana!" Scarlett said cheerily.

Another brunette ran out of the house, holding a paper. "A Sky Knight, a freaking _Sky Knight-_"

"And that would be Ashlyn. Ashlyn, Scarlett and Kai, Scarlett and Kai, Ashlyn," Rondana introduced. Kai nodded.

"Well… what are you waiting for? Come in!" It was obvious the group didn't get visitors often.

"Uh… sure," Scarlett said, wondering what sort of horrors could possibly be in Jim Harvels house.

Probably _lots _of glue. Oh the doom.

The house, by the way, was an utter wreck. Downstairs was loaded with shelving units, small tables, and cots scattered all over the place, layering the floor and the area around were magazines, papers, bottles of fluid (don't ask), old sandwiches, someones shoe, and what looked like dishes that had clearly never been washed.

For a doctor, Jim Harvel was not very organized.

Seeing the practically horrified looks on Scarlett and Kais faces, Ashlyn laughed. "There aren't any patients here right now, if that's what you're wondering. We always clean up before hand."

"…sometimes."

"It's better then other places I've seen," Kai said, still surprised a doctor could possibly be this disorganized.

Scarlett nodded. "So, why _did _you call?"

"Oh, that reminds me. The Rock Hearts are coming too. We didn't know how to contact you-" she meant Kai, at this- "but apparently they did, and so they're coming," Rondana said.

There was a crashing noise from what sounded like upstairs.

"And Lee's here too," Ashlyn pointed out. At this a green haired man ran downstairs, followed by two others- Lee's brothers. Luthor was holding a fire extinguisher.

Jim stared.

"What did you do?!"

"Well, um… _actually-"_

Ashlyn bolted upstairs. If they had brought sake, they were all doomed.

"And I think the Storm Hawks are coming, but I'm not sure. Anyway, we kinda of need help with a… _situation…_"

"If it's about Ashelle, we already know," Scarlett said. "What's the plan?"

"Well, actually, we have no plan. I have no idea what to do," Rondana said sheepishly.

Kai sighed.

There was a shriek from upstairs. "You set the _sake _on _fire_-"

"Oh doom," Rondana muttered. Lee grinned.

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"C'mon, Aladd, it'll be fun!"

Back with the Rock Hearts, Tigger tried to persuade Aladd to come with them. "I mean, it's not like Ashelle is going to start _flirting _with you or something-"

Aladd turned pale at the idea, and Tigger changed her strategy. "Well, I mean, it's not _likely_… hey, at least the only water is at that cholera river!"

Aladds eyes boggled. Just what he needed, water _and_ disease.

"Um… I mean… uh…"

Aladd shook his head. "There's no way,"

"C'mon! We're… already here, anyway!"

Aladd looked out the window and found, to his horror, the rain forested Terra was already in view.

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"Where are we gonna land?"

Finn's voice broke the silence. The entire Terra below was covered in trees or that city; there was no clearing large enough for them.

"Uh…" Aerrow looked out. "That might be a problem,"

Everyone looked at Stork, who could easily solve the problem if only he weren't unconscious. But if they woke him up and he saw where they were, he'd have a panic attack. They were on their own for now.

Piper thought. "Maybe we could kind of… rope it to the edge of the Terra?"

"Good idea," Aerrow said. They could try and hook it up between Pathologica and Saharr. Although where they would get the ropes was a problem in itself.

Piper soon realized this.

"_Or_ two of us could stay on the Condor, and the rest could go down and check it out," she said. "Someone needs to watch over Stork, anyway,"

"So who's staying?" Aerrow asked.

Junko shrugged. "I guess… I'll watch over Stork… the disease thing is kind of creepy anyway…"

Finn nodded in agreement. "We'll take good care of the Condor!"

"I sure hope so," Shadow muttered, wondering what kind of chaos the Condor would be in when they got back.

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"Ashelle…. These applications suck,"

"Of course they do,"

"No, look at this one!"

Ashelle groaned and stood up, walking to Kellesey, leaning back in her chair, who was barely a third of the way into her pile. "What?" she asked; annoyed.

Kellesey showed her one of the papers. It read, 'List all your prior infections/illnesses. Please note we need to know _all_ of them for confidential reasons,'

Ashelles eyes boggled.

"Are they _kidding? _That'll take all _day_ for crying out loud! Hello? Terra Pathologica!" She said, and groaned, plopping back down in her chair. "Stupid Council…"

She was about to get back to her papers when something flitted past the adjacent window. When she looked up, it was gone.

The same thing happened five minutes later, and she could have sworn someone was outside…

"Hold on," She said to Kellesey and got up and walked to the window. She looked out.

No one _was _outside…

Was she seeing things?

**Sorry... chapter wasn't really good...**

**BTW, Mys and Squeen, I really hope you don't mind me using your OCs. Seeing as Shadows in the Storm Hawks, I couldn't use the Storm Hawks without having Shadow and I'm leaving Monday so I won't even get to see you guys when you come back, which sucks to high heaven. If you really don't want your OCs in this, just PM/review me and I'll change it.**

**So yeah...**


	3. Essebola

I'm ba-a-ck! singsong voice Uh, yep. New chapter! All written in a hotel room I had to share ALONE with my brother, sitting on the opposite bed asking "Can I read? Can I read?"

Well, okay, not really, but he sure stunk up the room...

Oh doom.

**Chapter 3**

Crack, crack, crack. Kellesey Almanikets hit her head repeatedly on the wall, trying to ignore the mounting pile of papers Ashelle was trying to sort through back on the table. Servants buzzed around Ashelle, trying to clear the applications so they could set the plates for a later meal.

Kellesey hit her head on the wall again. Arcello, the other blonde of their soon-to-be- squadron walked up to her.

"You're losing brain cells."

Crack. "Whatever,"

"You know, I really think-"

There was the sound of something shattering upstairs. Ashelle jumped.

Whenever something broke in this palace things always seemed to go wrong. The last time something broke in here was when Populus Pathologicus was nearly destroyed.

Kellesey gave Ashelle the look that practically screamed, _Go fix that!_

Ashelle almost fell out of her chair and ran upstairs. The noise sounded like it had come from the fourth floor study.

She threw open the door and a pair of eyes stared back at her.

Ashelle screamed and fell back against the door, which slammed behind her. The eyes belonged to a dark haired man, who fell back into a bookshelf.

His eyes widened and he stood up.

"Essebola,"

Ashelles eyes fell onto the claw necklace tied on a string hanging from his neck, the mark of an Ebola Clan member.

And he had just called her the Ebola _goddess-_

But she wasn't-

Ashelle shook her head, still surprised. "No, I'm not the Ebola-"

She paused when she felt the door open behind her and Arcello burst in. "Who screamed?!"

Ashelle slid down the wall to the floor.

The Clan member was gone.

Essebola…

Why did that name sound so familiar?

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On the most deadly Terra in Atmos, inside a hollow palace on a large throne, sat the Master herself. A fourteen year old girl, leader of the ruthless Terra Cyclonia.

"Dark Ace,"

Her servant, the general Dark Ace, looked up from at her feet.

"What is it, Master?"

At this, Cyclonis stood up, off her throne, and walked around him. "It's Terra Pathologica,"

"Again?"

Ace stood up, and Cyclonis nodded.

"Are people _always_ on that disease Terra?" Ace asked.

Cyclonis sighed. "We have sources. Some of the most wanted people in Atmos are lingering there right now,"

"But you know the risks of sending out airships," Ace pointed out.

The Master, of course, knew this. There was the problem of Pathologican armies, the rainforest, angry civilians and the mobs they created. But of course, the disease was the top concern.

"Of course. _You'll _send them out."

Ace couldn't argue. He just hoped he wouldn't run into that annoying girl who took him as 'Werenheimer' again…

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A steam spray filled the upstairs room of the Harvel house. Ashlyn dropped the fire extinguisher and turned to glare at Luthor, Lee and Johnny Barrs.

"You are all so dead,"

Lee grinned and bolted downstairs, followed by his brothers and Ashlyn. "Hey! I'm not done with-"

The four jolted to a stop as they landed downstairs, false, innocent grins on their faces. "Hey…"

Jim stared.

The door broke open and a dark haired man ran in. "Save- me- fangirls-"

Aladd didn't have time to finish as a stampede of fangirls ran into the room, followed by Tigger.

"Poor Aladd,"

Rondana snickered. "Where'd the mob come from?"

"Actually, that's a Pathologican mob," Kurk said, walking in, followed by Luke and Toto. "We were just walking, minding our own business and then, then these _fangirls_-"

"Uh, if you don't mind, we really need a plan," Kai pointed out.

"Oh, right,"

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In an airship soaring high in the sky in the space between Pathologican and Saharr, i.e. above the Wastelands, Stork paced. They had removed his happy place hours earlier, and now Stork was clearly… well… Stork.

"What's wrong?" Finn leaned against a wall, King of the Condor.

"Roping the Condor, heh, how hard can that be…?"

Stork was talking to himself. Clearly he's delusional.

"…huh?"

Finn gave the carrier pilot a strange look. "If we're flying the Condor, why do we need to rope it?"

Stork sighed and leaned against the wall in a dramatic position.

"We're running out of fuel crystals," Stork said, beginning his monologue of doom. "People don't sell fuel crystals here. We'll run out, since Piper has our recharger crystal, and plummet into the Wastelands,"

"Oh," Finn said thoughtfully, "That's _not _good."

"How much time do we have until that happens?" Junko asked worriedly.

"I'd say…" Stork paused, "…five minutes."

"WHAT?!"

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"Oh, right,"

The door burst open again and several disheveled Storm Hawks ran in. "Uh, we have a problem-" Aerrow started.

"If it's the mob, we already know," Scarlett said.

"No, it's-"

"And the Rock Hearts are here too," Ashlyn added.

"That's not-"

"We already know about Ashelle's squadron-"

"IT'S CYCLONIA!"

Everyone in the room shut up, except for Shadow, who looked into a cabinet, shuddered at a tube of a strangely colored liquid covered in dust, and shut the cabinet in a split second.

"_Cyclonia's _here too?" Kai asked.

What a day.

"We saw their airships coming in," Piper explained, closing the door as Radarr climbed up onto Aerrows shoulder. Aladd wrestled out of the fangirls and spotted the Storm Hawks.

"Storm Hawks!" Aladd turned to glare at Jim. "You brought _them?!_"

"You brought the Rock Hearts?!" Piper asked.

"Hey, didn't we just tell you the Rock Hearts were here-?" Rondana started, but the Storm Hawks and Rock Hearts were already stirring up chaos. Kai, Scarlett, Shadow, Tigger, the fangirls and everyone else not involved (or not wanting to be involved) backed away slowly.

Oh, doom…


	4. The unbelievable name chapter

**Chapter 4: The unbelievable name chapter**

"You coughed!"

This was Ralph Senites' fathers reason to take him to a doctor, a simple cough. On a Terra where most people don't even think about medicine until their last (infected) dying breath, overprotective Mr. Senites was the extreme.

The two trekked up a well worn trail through Varicella. Mr. Senites was an acquaintance of Jim Harvel, although Ralph had never met Jim.

But the way his dad spoke of Jim, Ralph wasn't sure he wanted to.

Mr. Senites stopped at a log and panted. "Dang, why'd the trail have to be so long… and steep…"

"Dad," Ralph said, standing nearby and looking completely unfazed, "We've only been walking a few miles,"

"Oh, heh, right son," Mr. Senites stood up and stretched.

Ralph was eternally grateful for all the trees and bush, his dad embarrassed him so. All the plant cover provided handy.

There was a strange whirring sound, like an engine. Ralph looked up- as the sound was coming from the sky- and was unpleasantly surprised when he saw what was flying above.

A Cyclonian airship.

Mr. Senites, apparently, saw this too. He grabbed Ralph's arm and took off running. Ralph practically flew through the air, trying not to trip on thick roots and branches.

"We need to get to the bunker!" his dad yelled.

"_DAD_!"

Mr. Senites kept running. "I think Jim has a bunker-"

"The airship's already _gone_-"

Ralph was right, the airship was now out of view. For all they knew, it was just passing overhead, really on it's way to another Terra. But they didn't know, there were so many trees it was close to impossible to see the sky in the first place.

But Mr. Senites didn't stop. He dragged Ralph into a clearing and up to a small wooden house looking on the verge of collapse. He dashed to the porch.

Now in the clearing in front of the house, Ralph had a much better view of the sky. His dad was apparently right in running. The airship was parked above the Micrite river, several dozen miles down.

It actually looked like it was trying to land (in a rainforest? Idiot Cyclonians) but the boy couldn't really tell. He only had a glimpse, seeing as his dad had now pulled him to the door and was now banging on it as if their lives depended on it.

Ralph was surprised at the Cyclonian stupidity. Sure, the Micrite was the flattest region of the Terra, but it was also the deadliest. The Ebola Clan would probably pick a fight, after all, they lived on the Micrite and were incredibly defensive.

Why did people always seem to land airships _there_ of all places?

His thoughts were cut off when Mr. Senites almost tore down the door and looked in.

They shouldn't have been surprised.

There were two groups of people- Storm Hawks and Rock Hearts, stirring up a fight. Surrounding them was another group of people, watching, cheering and eating popcorn.

Jim spun around, having heard the door almost explode. "Sebastian!"

Mr. Senites smiled for a moment. "Hey, I thought I told you to call me Sabby?"

Kai, who had been listening in, snorted and almost choked on his popcorn.

Ralph, however, turned red and started to hit his head on the wall.

Jim grinned. "Almost forgot for a sec. How you been?"

"We need the bunker!" 'Sabby' said, cutting to the chase.

"What- why-"

"We just spotted a Cyclonian airship!"

"I TOLD YOU!" Piper yelled. Everyone stopped fighting and paused.

"YES! SO WE NEED TO PROTECT OURSELVES!" Mr. Senites yelled.

Everyone stared.

"…in the _bunker_!"

Scarlett nodded slowly.

Mr. Senites groaned. He started directing people to the trapdoor. "Go, go, go!"

Everyone backed away from the paranoid man and were shuffled to the bunker.

Ralph swore he would never cough again.

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"Something wrong?" Arcello asked. Ashelle looked up.

"I'm fine. Go away."

"Teenagers…" he muttered. There was the sound of footsteps fading as Arcello walked off.

Ashelle stood up and saw something shine on the floor, reflecting sunlight. A polished claw necklace.

She looked up and saw that man was back.

She knew better then to scream this time. "What are you, a stalker?" she asked, annoyed, trying to keep her voice down so the people downstairs wouldn't hear her.

The man shook his head. She noticed that he still had _his _claw necklace around his neck. Then where did the other one come from?

"Then who are you-" she started when he picked up the necklace and handed it to her.

"You're one of us, princess." He said knowingly.

Ashelles eyes narrowed.

"I _can_ call security on you," she pointed out and backed up slightly. This guy was really creeping her out.

"I know," he shrugged. "So what? I'm not supposed to be here anyway,"

"Then what do you want?!"

He motioned to the necklace now in Ashelles hand.

"I want you to keep that. And wear it-"

She threw it at him. She was _not _an Ebola Clan member. She was one of Esstuberculosis' tribe. And Esstuberculosis _despised _the Ebola Clan.

"Go. Now." She hissed.

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Arcello stampeded downstairs. "Having fun with the paperwork, Kells'?"

Kellesey, still at the wall, and fifteen servants glared at him. "If you _ever_ call me that again, I'll kill you. Or I'll get the guards to do it for me,"

Arcello grumbled.

The cropped, dark haired older boy of their squadron leaned against the wall. "Tough luck, kiddie,"

"Shut up, _Maurice,_" Arcello taunted.

Kellesey burst into fits of giggles. She turned to the buff man. "Your name is _Maurice?_"

Maurice was clearly angry. "I'm called _Mason_-"

Even the servants were laughing.

"Hey, if you think Maurice is bad, you should hear Arcello's _brothers _name-"

"You mean that brunette kid with the ponytail?" someone asked.

"The one in our squadron?" Kellesey added.

"Yes, yes, that's the one. His name is _Sue._"

Arcello hit his head on the wall as _Sue _walked in. "Your name is _Sue_?!" Kellesey asked, between fits of laughter.

Sue was also, clearly angry.

"WHO TOLD YOU?!"

Everyone pointed to Maurice. Sue narrowed his eyes and ran to attack him.

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"It's really dark in here," someone pointed out.

"Dang, it smells!"

"Hey, I haven't used this bunker in ages!" Jim protested. "It's mostly a cellar, anyway…"

The large group was in the bunker.

"This is pointless," Scarlett muttered.

Everyone agreed. The room was crowded and completely pitch black.

"Why do we need to be here again?" Rondana asked, in the direction she figured the man that had ran them into this place would be.

His voice echoed from a completely different side of the room. "Because, Cyclonians are here. What if they bomb this place?"

"Then won't the rubble just collapse on us, blocking the trapdoor and effectively trapping us in here?" Tigger pointed out.

Several Rock Hearts muttered in agreement, and there was the sound of a few people shifting uncomfortably.

"That's it, I'm getting out of here," Ashlyn said.

There was the sound of something shattering.

"Oh boy, WHAT WAS THAT?!" Shadows voice rang in the room. She was desperately hoping it wasn't some toxic chemical.

"IF ONLY WE COULD SEE, and then we'd know!" Piper said.

"Man, _she's _annoyed today," Kurk sighed.

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Dark Ace tried to land an airship on the Micrite. He soon saw that this would be impossible. The tree cover was too thick, the river was too thin for the airship to fit in, but mostly because if he parked the airship in the river the water would be blocked and his airship would be a manmade damn.

Which would probably destroy the ship, rendering the landing completely useless.

Instead, he parked it several dozen feet above the treeline. "We'll have to let down a rope," he ordered his talons.

None of them did anything.

"I mean _now!_"

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Wow. Longer chapter then usual.

See, this is why it's called the unbelievable name chapter.

As for Sue, have any of you heard that song by Johnny Cash about the guy whos dad named him Sue so that he'd be tougher (because he'd probably get beat up more and get into more fights) That is what has happened here. And I love that song so much, so I named Arcellos older brother… Sue.

Giggles!


	5. Trash Disposal

**Trash Disposal: Chapter 5**

A soft pink glow illuminated the bunker. Its source was a growing puddle of the possibly toxic liquid Ashlyn had spilt earlier. "It" engulfed half the floor and the light gave everyone the appearance of red cheeks and pale pink outfits. This reminded Rondana horribly of her sister, Kellesey.

Everyone backed up to the opposing wall.

"That's not fatal, is it?" Scarlett asked worriedly, against the wall like everyone else.

"_Well,_" Tigger added, "It looks like one of three pink-glowing chemicals produced in Atmosia, what's its ID number… 9201… or was that the monoxopuff-"

"Is it fatal or not?!" Piper demanded.

"It burns things. So _technically, _yes, it's very fatal-"

Ralph noticed the edge of a nearby cabinet slowly wearing away as 9201 swarmed it. The chemical was closing in…

"WE'RE GOING TO DIE!" Mr. Senites yelled, and everyone glared at him.

"This is _your fault _we're in the bunker to start with," Rondana pointed out.

"Well, the brunette spilled that thing…"

Everyone turned to glare at Ashlyn.

"What?!" she said defensively. "MAYBE IF I COULD HAVE SEEN, THIS WOULDN'T HAVE-"

"Ahem!" Kai pointed out. "We have a situation!"

Everyone shut up momentarily.

Toto barked.

"Hey, that's a good idea!" Luke agreed.

"What did he say?"

"Well, he said since the chemical is still thinly spread out on the floor-" this was true, it couldn't have been more then an inch deep, although it was widespread- "We could try running through-"

"But it _burns, _it practically _dissolves_-"

"Not if we're quick," Luke said after Toto barked again. "Besides, it's not like we can just stay here. For all we know this thing is emitting poisonous gas,"

Several people were left wondering why this kind of thing was in Jim Harvels cellar.

"Well, are we going?" Luke asked. "I mean, before the ladder dissolves and we're trapped in here,"

Everyone looked to the ladder, and saw the very bottom of it was indeed starting to disintegrate. This sprung them all into action, and several seconds later the ladder was engulfed in people.

Toto sighed. "_Humans…_" he barked, in dog-speak.

Not like he cared. He was being carried by Luke.

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"WHAT?!"

"Yep," Stork said, unusually calm for the situation of their apparent doom, "It's that simple. We're going to die in five minutes,"

"No!" Junko yelled.

"Dude, I _cannot_ die," Finn said. "There has to be SOMETHING to use as fuel!"

Junko thought. Stork thought. Finn thought.

"Hey! I have an idea! Maybe all those doom books you have are flammable and we can use them as fuel!" Finn said.

"_NO!!"_

Finn was already gone. Stork scrambled after him. "Can't you just accept our doom rather then destroy my doom books?! Why can't you burn your own stuff?!"

"Because, my stuff is cool!"

Finn grabbed the books and a pile of papers- Storks will- and ran off to the engine room. Stork was in hot persuit.

The sharpshooter skidded to a stop in front of the room and dove in. Stork was hit in the face by the slamming door.

Meanwhile, Junko was in the kitchen getting popcorn.

Finn threw all of the papers into the engine…

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"Whew…"

Eighteen people, including one dog, stood over the trapdoor. The puddle 9201 had engulfed the entire room and the ladder had fallen over into the chemical sideways and was now dissolving.

They were all very relieved they had gotten out in time.

"Hey, is it just me or does the floor look like it's dissolving?" Rondana cocked her head sideways and looked in. The bunker looked deeper then before.

Lee stared. "That can't be good."

He noticed the floor of the bunker was about eight feet or so lower then before. It was now a twenty foot drop to get in.

"Maybe it'll dig a hole to Atmosia, sia," Luthor said.

"But won't that puncture the center of the Atmos, letting gravity escape and-"

"Tigger, shut up," Aladd said, annoyed.

"Hey!" Ashlyn pointed out after a moment of silence, "Look on the bright side! We now have an _excellent_ trash disposal,"

To prove her point, she threw a magazine into the pit. It sizzled and dissolved.

"See?"

CCCCCC

Ashelle looked up again.

The man was gone.

Again.

She looked back to the claw necklace. She could throw it out a window now and just forget what had happened.

But… something made her hold onto it. There was something strange about it…

It was then she noticed the peculiar bead pattern on it. Surrounding the claw was, on each side, three dark red, circular beads. But the necklace the man had been wearing earlier was _just_ the claw…

She snapped it on. In the mirror, much of it- including the claw- was hidden under her dress, only a few beads showing. No one would see the mark of the Ebola tribe.

No one would know.

Ashelle didn't know anything about that necklace… only the Ebola Clan did. And it was their sort of proof that she had 'accepted' her position as Essebola.

But Ashelle didn't know this, either.

CCCCCC

Ashelle walked downstairs only to find two of her squad members- Sue and Maurice- brutally attacking each other.

She instantly figured out what had happened.

Ashelle wandered over to Kellesey, Arcello and several servants watching from the opposing wall as Sue and Maurice rolled around on the table destroying each other.

Papers and plates scattered and shattered.

"Some squadron we're going to be," Kellesey muttered.


	6. Cyclonia Welcome

**Chapter 6: Is Cyclonia Welcome?**

Finn threw the papers and books into the combustion chamber just as Stork wrenched open the door-

"NO!"

There was a burst of smoke. Finn could have sworn Stork looked heartbroken- paused in a running stance, arms outstretched. He was too late.

He stood up slowly, and Finn stepped back, arms in the air like a surrender signal. He stepped back near the window and was shrouded in sunlight. "Dude…"

"You. Did. Not. Destroy-"

"Dude-"

"Don't you 'dude' me!"

Finn saw Storks eye twitch. This wasn't good.

"Look, Stork, I'm sorry, it was for the sake of the Con-"

Stork ran at him. Finn dodged around the Merb and took off back into the hallway. Stork was in hot persuit.

Junko sighed as the popcorn machine began to overheat. It broke open and kernels started to overtake the kitchen.

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Long ago, on the Terra of Pathos, there were eight goddesses.

And so a legend begins. The age was ancient Atmos, the location, Terra Pathologica. Or as it was known at the time, Terra Pathos.

Eight goddesses, five hundred years ago, were some of the most powerful beings in Atmos. Terra Pathos was well known and had already made a reputation for itself. But so had Terra Cyclonia…

The facts are well known, at least on Terra Pathologica. Ashelle Queneture, most known for her (failed) invasion of Terra Saharr, had also made quite a name for herself- a young, powerful empress who knew how to lead. Werenheimer, the Master of Terra Cyclonia at that time, and his attempted invasion of Pathologica. Then the epidemic that ravaged Ashelles armies, rendering her Terra powerless against the invasion, and then, on the final night of the preemptive strike, Ashelle was killed…

The eight goddesses swore revenge. Or at least, seven did. Because one of them was missing…

Essebola, somehow, no longer existed.

Esstuberculosis, somehow, didn't care.

And so began a long oppression…

_It was pouring rain. A bolt of lightning illuminated the cramped streets of Populus. Late at night…_

_A tall man stood over her. His eyes were a hideous shade of piercing red; although that was his only sign of being Cyclonian besides clothing and armor. He could pass as someones Atmosian grandfather. But the fierce look on his face gave him away._

_The spectators had all gone, and now it was just him and her. The sky was blank, starless. Although the city was lit in lights, they both were truly alone._

_Werenheimer raised a dark blue energy blade into the air, reflected by more lightning. Ashelle took a step back. This had been going on for hours. She held up her sword._

_She only had to corner and kill him now and it would all be over with…_

_She ran. The girl flew into the air, her sword almost at his neck…_

_A tackle. Werenheimer dodged her attack and she found herself on her back on the ground, the Cyclonian general above her._

"_I can't be defeated that easily, princess."_

_The wind had been knocked out of her. Ashelle struggled to regain her breath, and made to stand up._

_Werenheimer grinned. "Don't you see? Swords are a thing of the past. Crystal is what really kills,"_

_Her sword had fallen nearby. As Werenheimer made to pull out a dark violet stone, she rolled over to grab it-_

_She suddenly felt a terrible paralysis come over her. A violet aura surrounded Ashelle while she was on her stomach-_

_As Ashelle Queneture died, Werenheimer was laughing…_

Ashelle shook herself awake. She found herself in the fourth floor study, shrouded in midday light. She had fallen asleep on a page in the book explaining the goddesses. The fight downstairs had bored her, and she had come upstairs to do a little research on the Essebola problem. But her name was in textbooks.

That memory seemed so far away, and yet her dream made it so vivid. The room was clearly overheating, but Ashelle felt chills go down her spine as she thought about it.

But Werenheimer was dead now. He wasn't a problem anymore…

But his death wasn't because of her, as she had hoped five hundred years ago. His death was just a disease, caught by occupying the Terra. And her death was because of him.

She was such a fool then.

She would never relive that moment again.

CCCCCC

Downstairs, the soon-to-be squadron had actually _stopped _fighting.

To an extent, anyway. Kellesey and Arcello had managed to get Sue and Maurice to channel their hatred into each other for training, and surprisingly, it was working quite well.

"Alright, Maurice! Kick that target like it's Sue!"

The target was terminated.

"Hey!"

Sue threw his target at Maurice and Kellesey sighed. "Well…"

Arcello shook his head as canvas hit the wall above him and plummeted, he ran out of the way just in time. "Hello?! Training?"

Another canvas hit the wall and the poor blonde ran for it. "FINE! You know what, I don't care!"

Arcello did care, though. Otherwise he wouldn't have run. Or maybe he just feared for his own personal safety. Either way, the boy fled upstairs.

CCCCCC

There was a cracking noise as a door opened. Ashelle jumped and grabbed the nearest weapon she could find- the mail opener.

Arcello laughed as he walked in, and the girl sighed in relief.

"You alright, Ashelle?"

Ashelle put the 'weapon' down. "What brings you up here?"

"We uh… kind of need your help with Sue and Maurice…"

"Oh,"

Ashelle started downstairs. Arcello lagged behind, just slightly, and noticed the book she had been reading- 'The times and history of the deadly Ebola Clan'. It was open to a page about the eight goddesses, and the assassination…

Did Ashelle ever know about the legends that circled her own death?

CCCCCC

Dark Ace felt eyes on him.

On the banks of the Micrite River, talons lined up in rows. Dozens and dozens of blacks and reds and silvers, all lined up on the banks of what probably was one of the most deadly rivers in Atmos.

But behind them, there was a village. It dwindled from the banks into the rainforest, made up of small huts and branch. Among them were groups of people, all wearing identical claw necklaces.

They were glaring. Ace noticed many, even children, had creepy, sword like weapons. Were these of the infamous Ebola Clan? Because if so, he was screwed.

Dark Ace turned to a talon. "This Terra is officially part of the invasion. As soon as we get to Populus it will be under our control,"

The talon was Ravess.

She nodded, and Ace smirked. But several members of the Ebola Clan eyes narrowed.

A kid that couldn't have been over twelve shot an arrow at Ace suddenly. It missed and hit a nearby talon, who clutched his eye in pain. Ace jumped in surprise.

Someone then threw a torch at the airship, and part of it burst into flames. Ace shot an electric blast at said Ebola Clan-ite, but they were already gone…

Yep, they were screwed.

CCCCCC

There was an uncanny noise.

It sounded like something had just imploded, or been set on fire. The group ignored the now forty-foot hole in the bunker filled with random crap and ran to the window to see what was going on.

Several miles south, a Cyclonian airship was now halfway parked in the Micrite basin. It was on fire and a plume of smoke had risen from the trees.

_I knew that was a bad place to park, _Ralph thought.

"Well, we have some sort of mission now," Kai muttered.

"And if things couldn't get any worse, it's one involving Cyclonia." Rondana said. She grabbed her staff.

"Well, I guess now's as good a time as any," Ashlyn said. But deep down, she was disappointed they couldn't watch the 9201 longer.

Jim peered into the trapdoor that led to the bunker.

"I should probably stay. Just in case this thing mutates,"

"Yah, me too," Mr. Senites decided. "That, and if you go out in public you'll probably be trampled by an angry mob,"

Doctors were illegals on Pathologica.

"Heh, yeah…"

"Ralph, you're staying too," Mr. Senites decided.

"DAD-"

"Those Cyclonians are dangerous!"

Ralph thought of an excuse. "Well, um, what if I fall in the bunker? I'll die!"

"Oh, you're right! All of you need to get out of here pronto!"

Ralph smirked. "Easy," he muttered.

"Wait," Kurk stopped, "Are you saying I'm going on a mission with a bunch of _kids_?"

"Hey, I'm twenty four!" Lee pointed out. His shortness often made him look younger.

The other 'kids' protested.

"I'm not a kid, kid!" Luthor argued.

Toto barked in annoyance and Kurk sighed.

CCCCCC

"This is _not_ what I signed up for," Scarlett muttered.

Having trekked back down the mountain, the large group was now just off the Micrite River, in the rainforest off the banks and out of view of the Ebola Clan and the Cyclonians.

"You didn't sign up for anything," Ashlyn pointed out. "We forced you to join,"

"True, true…"

Shadow and Lee shuddered; Lee could have sworn he had just seen the Dark Ace…


	7. Battle Plans

**Chapter 7: Battle plans**

Dark Ace walked the banks of the Micrite River as, behind him, talons 'extinguished' his airship. His plans weren't working. He paced, this was bad.

The Ebola Clan was a bigger problem then he thought.

He suddenly walked into another talon, not paying attention. "Watch where you're going, idiot!" said talon yelled.

"Hey! I'm your _general!_"

"Yeah, whatever."

Dark Ace looked behind him as the talon walked off. Where was his superiority? They couldn't think he was a bad general! It couldn't have been the dozens of missions against the Storm Hawks he'd failed…

No, that couldn't be it.

He suddenly caught a pair of eyes watching him from the bushes. He jumped. Pathologican spies?

Wait, he recognized those eyes… nobody had orange eyes except for the Storm Hawks' navigator…

Why did they always seem to show up?

Suddenly, a plan came to his mind, brilliantly and sharply, as if a lightbulb had just gone off over his head. He had an idea.

The Ebola Clan hated foreigners. And they were ruthless.

It couldn't be too hard to send them after the Storm Hawks instead…

CCCCCC

"What the _hell_ are they doing here?" Aladd said, breaking the silence. He shuffled in the uncomfortable bushes, analyzing the talons and waiting for a weakness.

Ashlyn shrugged, but she knew Aladd had a good point. After all, whenever Cyclonia tried to invade this place, they would die. This Terra was just too dangerous what with the disease, even the great general Werenheimer had succumbed to it, five hundred years ago. She recalled a folk song sung by traders just to _avoid_ this place.

Not to mention the angry mobs.

"Yeah, guys, we have a problem,"

"Shadow, whatever it is, I'm sure Cyclonia is a more pressing concern."

"That _is_ the problem! Dark Ace saw us!" the Storm Hawks' trainee hissed.

They all looked up to see Ace watching the bushes. Piper jumped back in surprise.

"Oh, crap."

CCCCCC

Finn ran into the kitchen, where Junko was eating popcorn, and instantly tripped on the kernels and fell. From the floor, the sharpshooter looked up.

"You couldn't clean this, huh?!"

Junko shrugged as Stork ran in.

"I've got you now!"

"Ahh!"

CCCCCC

Dark Ace fired a shot at the bush.

"Lee, duck!" a frenzied voice hissed and he saw a green blur ducking the shot from behind the leaves. Part of the bush was singed from the striker crystal.

"Oh, now it's on!" a voice yelled.

About twenty people ran from the trees and the bush. They immediately noticed how badly the talons outnumbered them and stopped dead in their tracks. This wasn't a good situation.

"Clan!" Dark Ace didn't even turn to look at the people behind him; he just raised his arm to motion to them. "Attack those ones!"

He pointed.

The Clan stared.

Nobody moved.

Nobody was comprehending.

Did they not know his authority as well? What was going wrong?

Suddenly, a three year old boy from the Clan shot an arrow at Dark Ace.

He was caught off guard, but the general ducked.

What was happening? They were supposed to attack the Storm Hawks!

Kai caught on.

"Technically, the Cyclonians were the ones who all out invaded, so they must seem as more of a threat," he explained quickly.

"That makes sense," Scarlett nodded in agreement and strained to get a better look to see what exactly was going on that was sending the talons into a frenzy.

That was before a Clan member started shooting at _them_ as well.

CCCCCC

There was a strange 'thud' noise.

Ashelle was surprised she could even hear it over Sue and Maurice trying to kill each other, what with the canvas target boards and all. She jumped in surprise and turned to the window nearby.

A plume of smoke was rising from the rainforest.

"I'll be back," Ashelle said to Kellesey, and without giving explanation she ran off. This was worth investigating. The Ebola Clan wasn't into explosives yet, were they?

"Whatever,"

A piece of canvas broke nearby.

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"What- they're not supposed to attack _us_!" Ashlyn yelled. "They should be-"

"Duck, you idiot!" Rondana yelled and grabbed her arm and jumped on the ground. A striker crystal flew through the air above.

"Oh, right…"

Aerrow sighed. He got out his energy blades. "Well, we don't need to fight them. We just need-"

He dodged an attack. "-need to get the Cyclonians-"

"THEY'RE COMING!"

Two or three of the Clan members were running toward them, stopping every minute or so to duck- under the now drenched airship- from random flying projectiles from both sides.

"I can't believe I agreed to help for this," Ralph muttered.

"My thoughts exactly," Piper agreed.

"You're the one who said we should go in the first place!" Aerrow said, and ran into the talon onslaught.

Lee stared.

"He's _crazy_!"

"He's done this before," Shadow said mildly and got her axe. She ran to the airship for cover.

"Yeah. We're fighting." Rondana muttered.

Everyone immediately retrieved their form of weapon. Piper slipped a dynamite crystal into her staff. "Oh, this might be fun…"

"If that's an apocalypse crystal-"

She was already off.

"Who are we fighting?" Ashlyn shook her head. "I don't get this. The Ebola Clan is fighting us _and_ Cyclonia, and Cyclonia is fighting us and them, and we're fighting them and them?"

"…huh?"

"I guess it's like a three way war," Kai said, "And we're hopelessly outnumbered." He activated his crystal staff.

"Positive one."

"Are you all going to help or not?!" Aerrow asked from a distance, taking on five talons at once. He seemed impatient.

"They are _such_ procrastinators," Scarlett said.

"I don't see you fighting!"

"What the _hell_ is going on?!"

A girl that looked exactly like Rondana was behind them. The Ebola Clan spotted her, as well.

Suddenly half the Clan was on their knees, bowing.

Lee stared. "I've had too much sake…"

"That's _not _the sake." Shadow jumped down from part of the airship wall.

Ashelles eyes narrowed.

"And it looks like _you've _all had fun destroying the Micrite…"

**--**

**Okay, it was suckish, but I had a writers block trying to get this scene down...**


	8. Messengers and Sake

Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

_Once upon an ancient Atmos…_

_There were four Messengers- the Warrior, the Shadow Queen, the Dark One, and the Healer. Their job was to fight evil that plagued the infant Atmos, and they did well. Soon their world was at peace._

_But it was known that the Messengers soon began to fall apart. The Dark One moved to turn against her friends, and then enslaved the soul of a man, Catseye, to help do her bidding. The fourth Messenger, the Healer, was in love with Catseye. She tried to save him. Both were killed._

_The Dark One began to take over, and Atmosians feared for their world. The Shadow Queen and the Warrior had to fight her._

_The war nearly destroyed the world, and created what is now known as the Wastelands. Some time later, the remaining Messengers died._

_It was not a well known fact that Terra Pathos was not always obsessed with illness. In fact, before the war, they were as normal a region as any other. But the Pathologicans feared, more then ever, that without Messengers to protect them they would surely be taken over by the new empire, Cyclonia._

_Thousands of years ago, Pathos changed. Suddenly the goddesses were a huge part of their history. Monuments were created in their honor, and the eight queens of the area began to twist the Terra to their own need. Their powers were eight different kinds of slow death, and they began to put a hold on Terra Pathos. Pathos was no longer an ancient superpower. It nearly cut itself off from the world, and by doing so, set itself up for one of the worst genocides known to Atmos; a genocide that was slow, painful and lasted hundreds of years. _

_It still continues._

_But the question arises: where did the goddesses come from? Why did they only appear after the Messengers died?_

_Was it possible Pathos created them as a crutch, to make them feel protected?_

_Were the goddesses merely fictious?_

_CCCCCC_

"And it looks like _you've _all had fun destroying the Micrite…"

Rondana knew that voice. It was all too obvious that Ashelle would eventually come into the picture. She was queen of this Terra, after all.

_Please don't have a catfight, please don't have a catfight, _Scarlett was thinking. She knew Rondana and Ashelle hated each other, and a catfight was the last thing they needed right now.

But Rondana had never mentioned she and Ashelle looked exactly like clones of each other.

Ashelle, meanwhile, was analyzing the group. Her eyes narrowed. She knew that Rondana- and by extension, the other Pathologicans- would be here, but all these extra people she didn't know were suddenly getting involved too. The strange thing was, she recognized a lot of them from wanted posters.

There was the girl with auburn-blonde hair- Ashelle realized she was a member of the Rock Hearts squadron and was wanted in Cyclonia. Surrounding her were several other Rock Hearts, including a scruffy haired man…

_Dang, he was sexy…_

_Ashelle, snap out of it! _Her conscience yelled at her. She mentally smacked herself.

There were three Storm Hawks and their pet- er, animal something, although it looked like a Sky Monkey... she saw the blue haired girl, this was the one who had revived her about a year previous (or, as that blonde idiot had said- what was his name again?- "Brought to the future")…wait, why were some of the Hawks missing? Had Cyclonia finally captured-?

She snapped back to the real world. Cyclonia was here too.

And Werenheimer- or, as people called here in the future- 'Dark Ace'.

And he was grinning.

"Well, it's actually… good you finally showed up," he said. A menacing grin crossed his face and his energy blade lit up dark red. The talons began to collect behind him. "We were about to take over your Terra anyway,"

Ashelle, surprisingly, laughed.

"Yeah, you all did _great_ on the last two attempts,"

"This happened before?" Scarlett asked. "_Twice?_"

"500 years ago," Rondana said, "And last year, but the disease always…"

Ace shook his head. "You're so naïve. Sure, your disease cultu- _obsession_ – got us last time, but these talons are so…"

Everyone knew what he wasn't saying: _disposable. _To a Cyclonian general, talons were easily disposable, so many of them at use that even hundreds dead would mean nothing to their top leaders.

Lee gritted his teeth. He and his brothers looked furious, having been talons before. And to them, talons were by no means _disposable._

Ashelle nodded. "Of course. Then I guess the battle begins now,"

She raised her arm. Everyone looked back toward the Clan, and was surprised to see them actually _bowing_ to Ashelle. The Clan rose as Ashelle waved her arm. One gasped.

"Essebola is wearing the necklace! She had accepted her duty!"

Rondana spun around and looked at the queen. "Wait, what 'duty'…"

She spotted the red beads and recognized them instantly. Only the Ebola Clan put so much effort into that kind of jewelry…

"Oh no you didn't," she muttered under her breath.

"Ebola Clan, attack them!" Ashelle demanded. She pointed to the Cyclonians.

She then turned to the others and added, "And them,"

CCCCCC

"I'll get you!"

"Ahh!"

Finn scrambled to get up and almost tripped again on the sea of kernels scattered around the Condor kitchen. "Dude, don't kill me!" he said to Stork- he noticed the Merbs claws and gulped- "I'll… uh… make you sandcakes!"

Stork stopped.

"You don't even know how to _make_ sandcakes," he pointed out.

"I'll… uh… use Pipers recipe!" _Once I find it, anyway… _

Finn stood up.

"Fine," Stork said. "But I'll be waiting for my sandcakes," To Finns relief, Stork hobbled off. He was safe… for now.

Junko made to run away, "Well, good luck with-"

Finn grabbed his arm as he tried to escape.

"You're helping me, dude,"

CCCCCC

"WHAT?! Why attack _both_ of us?!" Ashlyn demanded. "We're defending Pathos, I mean, we're like, on your side…"

"Duck!" Aladd yelled as a steam of arrows from the Clan flew through the air above. Scarlett shuddered.

"They are _way_ too violent,"

Kai activated his staff and sped toward the talon assault, taking out five in one crystal powered blow. Shadow, still hanging on to the side of the airship, jumped down, bringing her axe down onto multiple talon staffs. There was a crack as the staffs broke. Shadow wasn't one to kill. Detaining was easier.

While the talons were easy to take care of, the Ebola Clan wasn't as much. Ralph, Piper, Lee, Luthor, Johnny, Ashlyn and Scarlett were busy attempting to hold them off. For the most part, it wasn't working.

Ralph was sparring with one of the Clan members who had a similar weapon to his- a small blade. The man was a great fighter, as was Ralph, and they matched each other in skill. But he didn't want to be stuck fighting all day…

Ralph quickly dodged a blow and hit the ground. He swung his leg around and tripped the guy, then rolled out of the way, so as not to get hit. He landed on his front, and Ralph put one foot on his back.

"Checkmate,"

Ashlyn, Piper and Scarlett were stuck fighting a very muscled man with a large mace. It easily reminded them of a Pathologican Snipe, and for the most part, the man was just as idiotic.

"That thing is _HUGE!_" Ashlyn yelled, referring to the mace.

"Duck!" Piper yelled as the mace swung above them.

"So I'm thinking this might be a problem," Scarlett muttered.

Johnny, on the other hand, ran in with sake. He hit a Clan member over the head with the bottle.

This particular person was not pleased.

Lee jumped out of the way of her axe swinging through the air. She took the sake bottle Johnny had hit her with and threw it into a tree. The glass shattered, the alcohol spilled and part of it caught on fire which was extinguished when a panicked talon dumped a bucket of water over it.

Luthor stared at the now-gone sake, then back at the woman who had rid them of it to start with.

"Oh no you didn't, didn't!"

Among those fighting the talons, things were going better… slightly. Aladd was all but flat out eliminating their army (and violently) and Tigger had modified the two talon staffs into a double-staff that was twice as powerful as the original. She grinned, cocked it and was ready to shoot…

Ashelle jumped. Suddenly, she had a better idea.

She was right about spotting them on wanted posters. Most of them were illegals… how much did Cyclonia pay again?

"I changed my mind," she said. "You're all arrested,"


	9. Job of the police

Chapter Nine: Job of the Police

**Chapter Nine: Job of the Police**

"I can't be arrested! I'm too smart!"

"Tigger… shut up,"

The area was hardly visible, lit only by a few fading Solar crystals Piper had set up. They were in a cell, all 20 or so of them, making it pretty cramped. Most everyone was backed up against the walls and it was damp and cold, like a cave. This made sense, no outer light shown in… this dungeon was underground.

"This is the fourth time this month," Aladd muttered, "I should really get my own cell by now…"

"You know," Kai mentioned, ignoring Aladd, "I wouldn't have though a place like this would have bothered to construct dungeons,"

"They didn't," Ralph pointed out, slumped against a wall. "These are the medieval torture chambers. I think they're keeping us in here until they figure out the most painful way to kill us," he said casually.

Almost everyone had an immediate panic attack.

"TORTURE chambers?! No one mentioned that!" Scarlett, near the cell bars, jumped.

"Squawk!"

"I DON'T WANT TO DIE!" Tigger yelled. "I haven't even gotten a Nobel Prize yet!"

"They probably won't even bother with me," Toto barked, "As I'm not even a mammalian species. SUCKERS!"

Luke sighed.

"Well this is bad, bad," Luthor said, standing in the back. Suddenly he spotted something scuttling across the floor…

"Hey look a cockroach, roach!"

The people who were in the back suddenly scrambled for the other end of the cell. Scarlett, who had been in their path, dove out of the way just in time.

"_Thanks_," Ashlyn, sitting near Ralph on one of the walls a ways away from the bug, said sarcastically. "For throwing everyone into a total fit,"

"Well, I _could_ have been wrong about the medieval torture thing. I was just saying,"

The cockroach, meanwhile, had at least five feet clearance. Even Rondana, normally used to something like this, was near the bars with everyone else after seeing how enormous the thing was- at least six inches, slick and unmoving.

Lee picked up a random shoe and threw it at the offending insect.

Said shoe missed, hit the wall, and sent the bug into frenzy. It moved like a silverfish and darted out of the way of the shoe now falling toward it in less than one second. The shock of it made someone scream, in a split second the cockroach had cleared two feet.

Aladd was the brave one.

Slowly, he walked forward, breaking away from the group. He held _another_ shoe in his hand (Johnny was now barefoot, although he preferred this) and made toward the cockroach.

Suddenly, there was a clicking noise.

"Oh my gawd, it's TALKING!" Shadow yelled, near Kai, who covered his ears. He noticed the griffin stone, tied on a thread around her neck, was glowing faintly… or that could have been one of the Solar crystals' reflection on it. He then remembered the girl could talk to animals.

Kai sighed.

"Well, what's it saying?" Lee asked as Johnny sunk his toes into the dirt and grinned.

"It says it doesn't want Aladd to kill him,"

"Well, screw this bugs needs!" Aladd yelled. He raised the shoe in the air above the roach.

"WAIT, STOP!"

Aladd groaned and the cockroach clicked again.

"It says it knows a way out… a way to escape," Shadow translated. She pulled herself out of the montage of people crammed against the bars. The crowd stated to loosen as they realized Mr. Cockroach was friendly.

"Shadow, listen to yourself. You're following directions from a _bug,_" Aerrow pointed out, walking near Aladd.

"Yep, she's finally lost it," Piper muttered, shaking her head.

"Rawr!" Radarr said, clinging to Aerrows shoulder.

"Aw, c'mon guys! It _is_ kind of cute!" she said, walking towards the thing. She noticed the roach had multiple eyes and shuddered.

Everyone stared.

"Besides, do we really have a better plan?"

Everyone sighed. "Fine, we'll listen to the cockroach,"

CCCCCC

They hadn't found Pipers recipe.

They had searched for almost two hours, and there was no hope. Either Piper had never written her recipe, or it was invisible, intangible and somewhere in the Wastelands. The kitchen was a disaster zone- utensils were scattered all over the floor, as were all the edible food items, and the counter was cluttered with expired food they had just now found and needed to throw away. Even the bridge, which was near the kitchen, was layered in random objects.

So Finn and Junko had decided to make sandcakes from scratch, with no recipe.

Already, that was a mistake.

"Hey, do you think Stork'll notice if baking soda is in his sandcake?" Junko suddenly asked, almost apologetically. Finn turned to his large friend and saw him holding an empty box of baking soda above the simmering pot of boiling water they were trying to cook in.

Finn noticed the bowl was filled with baking soda and figured Junko had probably spilled.

"Dude, we're not trying to _poisen _Stork!"

Finn poured the pot- and badly mixed baking soda- into the sink. This was their third attempt. The sharpshooter groaned and looked around the messy Condor.

"Stork is _so_ going to kill us," he said sadly. Junko, meanwhile, started eating a bowl of mush… it actually looked like it was _moving…_

Then, the moment of truth came.

Stork walked in.

He stepped in front of the door and paused. Without saying a word, he looked around at his Condor. His eyes bugged out.

He then turned to Finn, who gave him the same kind of smile a four year old gives his mom when he's just destroyed the kitchen.

"Heh! It's a funny story…"

Before anyone else spoke, Stork passed out.

Finn groaned.

"Great, now that Stork's out,_ we'll_ have to clean up!" he complained, (although at least they wouldn't have to face Storks wrath) his hands in the air. The teen grabbed and cup and threw it.

The cup knocked the steering wheel in the center of the bridge off the pole it normally rested on and it fell into the kitchen debris below.

Instantly, the Condor took a nose dive toward the Terra.

"Oh, crap,"

Finn tried to run down to the steering wheel. He managed to grab it and tried to plonk it back onto the pole, but it wasn't working. From the front window he could see Terra Pathologica come into view.

"We're going to die!" Junko, about 80 feet up holding onto the counter, yelled.

Crash.

CCCCCC

Back in a cell in Populus Pathologicus, a group of people were listening to a bug.

"Okay," Shadow said as the group began to form around Mr. Cockroach, "It-" she paused, as it started clicking again- "_he_ says that if someone has a wrench-"

Tigger held up her wrench. Ashlyn noticed it had a picture of Aladd plastered onto it.

"Why am I on your _wrench_?" Aladd asked, confused, standing near the girl.

Tigger blushed, "Eh heh, no reason…"

"Okay…" Shadow said slowly. _I'm not even going to ask. _"Okay, it- _he_-" she added after more angry clicking, "_he_ says that there's a trapdoor that we can break open and go through, and it leads to an exit or something…"

Everyone looked down and saw, partially covered in dirt, a small, wooden trapdoor.

"We really should have seen that when we came in," Aerrow muttered. Several others nodded in agreement and sighed, realizing that Mr. Cockroach was more aware of his surroundings then they were.

The group cleared around it slightly and Tigger leaned down next to what looked like a lock on the trapdoor. She crouched and started pulling it apart- the thing was connected with large screws, making it easier for the wrench to undo.

In about a minute, the lock pried off.

Suddenly the entire trapdoor burst open, as if something exploded beneath it. It flew off its hinges and hit the wall, just barely avoiding the few people standing there. A torrent of steam came from the opening, probably relieving some sort of pressure inside.

"Great, we hit the boiler room, of all places," Rondana muttered, the first to understand what was going on. A Pathologican boiler room was like a pressure time bomb, no one really knew how to operate it.

Suddenly, and before anybody else figured out what was going on, there was a massive crashing noise, as if someone had 'landed' an airship outside.

Rondana looked up and noticed that the impact had destroyed the back cell wall, and part of the grass outside was in view. From this point of view one could see part of an airship with a Storm Hawks insignia on it.

"Oh boy," Shadow muttered, "They crashed the Condor,"

CCCCCC

Ashelle Queneture was distracted.

Sure, they had managed to capture the rogues and get out of the Micrite before the Cyclonians really knew what was going on- the Ebola Clan had stalled them all really well. Back in the fourth floor study, she was going through yet another book, trying to figure out just what was going on.

So far, all she had really learned was that Essebola had disappeared right after the oblivion crystal incident with she had had with Werenheimer over 500 years ago. That didn't really make any sense to her, so for now, she ignored it.

The problem with Pathologican books was that any books with _useful _information were usually thrown into the Wastelands. So she didn't have much better then, "The goddesses are great. Worship them,"

Some help that was.

A familiar blonde, nine or ten year old girl wandered in.

"Hey, Kells," Ashelle said blandly. She threw another useless book at the wall.

"I told you never to call me that," the girl protested. Ashelle looked up.

Standing next to Kellesey was another girl. She was slightly shorter, with short, wavy brunette hair and a green dress decorated with ribbons on. She looked way too sweet.

She was probably like Kellesey. Looks were deceiving.

"Who's your new friend?"

"This is Selena," she said. Selena waved.

"So I see,"

"Why is she _reading?_" Selena asked Kellesey, looking horrified. "Who _reads_?"

The blonde shrugged. "You know, you can't learn _everything _in books, Ashelle,"

Ashelle was about to respond when she heard a crash coming from what sounded like the back of the palace, outside.

"Okay, what was THAT?!" she demanded. The floor seemed to actually shake from the impact, like an aftershock.

"I bet it was Cyclonians," Selena said darkly. "They always spoil the fun…"

Kellesey sighed.

CCCCCC

"Aww, c'mon!" Rondana yelled. "We had this perfectly under control-"

"No we didn't! This was _totally_ uncontrolled!"


	10. Fix the problem

**Chapter 10**

_Oh man, we've really screwed this up now…_

The opening between the cell and the outside reminded them of a landslide. Debris and part of the ground had slid into a large pile, connecting the cell to the area where the crash had been heard like a small hill, a small, weird hill of rubble. All of the escapees were currently running up this pitiful excuse of a hill to figure out just _what_ was going on.

All but one.

Ashlyn was digging through the rubble, looking for something. Easily, the girl could just climb up the 'hill' and get out of there. What was she doing?

Rondana, in view of the girl, realized instantly. Mr. Cockroach.

"There you are! Cockroaches _can_ survive anything!" she said happily and pulled the slick black bug out of the dirt and hugged him. Rondana stared. _She's got to be kidding me…_

Ashlyn took the large bug and ran up and out of the cell, light shining from the opening as if she was going into heaven. "Mr. Cockroach is okay!"

Surprisingly, several people groaned. _She's not kidding…_

Meanwhile, Finn stood shakily from the rubble of the Condor. From his position- facing away from the Condor- he couldn't tell how bad their airship had hit, although judging by the damage it had done to the palace- nearly ripping a massive section of wall off, including the wall which had partially covered his friends' cell, previously mostly underground- it was probably nasty. He was suddenly jumped by a smaller girl.

"Finn! You're okay!" he could hear Scarlett, and felt her hugging him…

"Yeah, I'm okay…" he said, still wobbly from their 'landing'. Finn groaned, and he saw golden eyes look up at him.

"You _are_ okay… right…?"

"Sure," Finn said. "The Finnster can survive anything…" he added, although his voice started to become more slurred. He stumbled and passed out, landing on the grass.

"Finn!"

"He'll be fine," Junko reassured, "He's just a little dazed from the-"

"WHAT DID YOU DO?!" Piper shrieked, suddenly. She looked up and was the first to see what had _really _happened to the Condor.

One of the air sacs had partially imploded and had drilled itself a little ways into the ground. The other jutted into the air, off balanced, several screws and sheets of metal having fallen off and landed below. All the windows of the bridge had shattered, random objects having fallen out as well and were scattered among the grass below with the glass. Even a door had somehow fallen out and was next to a torn up magazine with a guy with a skateboard on the cover.

Everyone stared.

Aladd was the first to speak.

"You guys are _so _screwed," he muttered, earning him a slap from an annoyed Aerrow.

"What?! It's true! Your airship has like, died!" he argued. Aerrow looked lethal. "I can _see _that!"

_Great, both of my cousins are going to kill each other, _Shadow was thinking as Kai and Piper restrained the two.

"Guys?" Kai said, after he had let go of Aerrow once the two Sky Knights had calmed down, "We have bigger problems."

"Like?"

"Look up."

The group looked up to see talon skimmers. "Oh crap, they're back," Ashlyn muttered, still holding on to Mr. Cockroach. She put him down and the bug scuttled around, freaking several people out.

"You think they'd quit by now…" Rondana sighed, "We need to split up."

"What, why? Can't we just get out of here?" Luke asked. "This place is… kind of disturbing…"

"The disease corpses are on the _other_ side of the palace, in the main city. No one's going there, if that's what you mean…" Rondana trailed off and several people shuddered. "Besides, I still need to check something in the palace."

Ashlyn gave her a look. _You're kidding me._

"And our original intent was stopping Ashelle from forming a squadron, which so far hasn't worked." She added.

Ashlyn sighed. "I guess I'll go,"

"Same," Ralph said, "I'm _not _fixing up that mess…" he muttered, motioning to the Condor. Aerrow glared.

"Is there sake in the palace?"

"Lee!"

"You know, sake _is_ explosive," Ashlyn agreed, "It could actually make a good weapon…"

"Exactly what I'm saying!" Lee said. Aladd sighed, "Fine, whatever, there's sake."

"I guess I'm stuck fixing the Condor," Tigger said, realizing how much work this could be for _one_ mechanic. She then remembered someone who could help. "Well, me and- _Stork!"_

"Oh my Atmos, we forgot about Stork!" Piper gasped. "Is he okay?"

"Well, I don't really know that…" Junko trailed off and instantly he and Piper dashed into the wreckage to find their Merb friend.

Somewhere in the back of the bridge near the kitchen they found him.

He was huddled in a corner, shaking; "My… Co… Con… Condor…"

"Stork?" Piper asked softly. The Merb looked up, and she continued. "It's okay. Tigger is going to help you fix it. It's still fixable…" she trailed off, _hoping_ it was still fixable. She and Junko navigated around random debris to get to Stork.

"Well? Are you coming out?"

CCCCCC

"This place gives me the creeps," Ashlyn muttered, sneaking along another dark, empty corridor of the Pathologican palace. It gave off the same air that a Cyclonian palace would, but its halls were made of wood and more brightly lit, making it look- _slightly_- more inviting.

"This place isn't as creepy as Cyclonia," Lee, behind her, pointed out. The two had broken off of the original group going into the palace intentionally, hoping to find out just _what_ Cyclonia was up to here.

"I've never even been to Cyclonia…" Ash trailed off.

"Well, it's worse… much worse…" Lee stopped. "Do you hear something?"

The two pressed themselves against a closed door, where they had heard a voice. Barely moving, they could just make out what was being said…

"It's all covered, then?" a male voice asked. Lee gritted his teeth, he recognized it as the Dark Ace, no doubt.

"Except for that airship that crashed in the back. I think everyone there is dead, though," this was a much younger voice, it could have easily been a pre-preteen girl. Neither knew who it could be. She didn't sound like Kellesey…

"_Everyone _there? Wasn't that the Storm Hawks' airship?" the Cyclonian asked. A shuffling sound could be heard.

"I think it was. I came down here and saw the insignia,"

"Does that mean they're dead?"

There was a pause.

"I think I hear something," the girl stopped and footsteps were heard. From her position on the floor, Ashlyn noticed that small feet were making their way toward the door…

"Run!" she hissed to Lee and the two took off before Selena Centrivita knew they were even there…

CCCCCC

"What did he mean, it's all covered? What's covered?" Ashlyn wondered aloud after they had run a safe distance away. She looked at Lee.

"It could mean anything…" Lee said, shaking his head. "He's too vague about things,"

"Silly Cyclonians," Ashlyn muttered. "At least _Cyclonis_ tells us all about her plans. Ace hardly ever refers to them,"

"I thought you said you've never been to Cyclonia?" the green haired man asked, confused. Ashlyn shrugged.

"Her plans usually spread all over Atmos, so we find out…"

"Well, Cyclonis _is_ only fourteen…"

"I guess that's good for us though," the girl pointed out. "I mean, if she wasn't so specific about her plans sometimes we'd never be able to stop her," Ashlyn looked up and looked at the map of the palace again. This hallway was leading nowhere.

"I was a Cyclonian once…" Lee trailed off.

"Well, I'm glad you left Cyclonia. You, Luthor and Johnny could probably kill us all if you were still talons," she said, flipping the map upside-down and trying to read it.

"Uh, I think we're lost." Lee noticed, looking around. This hallway looked exactly the same as before, only it was darker, likely meaning they had went down a floor. The hallways weren't really even, so you couldn't tell what floor you _really_ were on.

Ash plopped down on the floor, still trying to read the paper. "Well, this really sucks."

"Ditto,"

CCCCCC

"It's the Storm Hawks again," Kellesey said. "Selena just told me. She was trying to work it out with Dark Ace and I think he said he was going to 'fix the problem'…"

Ashelle and Kellesey were downstairs, trying to figure out a plan. Their prisoners had escaped; the Storm Hawks were back, and part of the palace had been destroyed. Ashelle, of course, was peeved- _more_ then peeved- but she wouldn't let on to that. There were only a few rules to being an evil empress, and one was _not_ letting the good guys know something had gotten to you. Or they'd keep doing it.

"What did he mean by 'fix the problem'?" Ashelle asked, sitting on a long table and jotting things down, trying to figure out where in the palace the others would be.

"Probably kill them. It doesn't matter," Kellesey said and shrugged, "They just need to be out of the way so the Council doesn't find out,"

"Duh,"

"What about the others, though?" Kellesey continued. "There's those non-squadron people probably running all over the place and messing things up-"

"I'm working on that right now," Ashelle said, sliding off the table. "But they could really be anywhere… damn, Rondanas going to screw this up,"

"No she's not. I think I know where she went…"

Ashelle looked up, surprised. "How would you know?" she asked. "Did you _see_ her?"

"I _know_ her," Kellesey said. "I've known her for almost ten years."

Ashelle grinned, realizing how much of a help the pre-preteen little girl could be.

"Good. Where is she?"

CCCCCC

Ashlyn and Lee sat in a dark hallway, bored to death.

"Don't tell me we're waiting here until someone finds us," Lee said, "I don't think anyone goes here, anyway…"

"Well, I could blow a siren or something, but we'd probably attract the guards… they'd kill me, I'm not supposed to be here… lepers not allowed…" Ashlyn said and trailed off.

"I don't think demons are allowed either."

The brunette looked confused, "Lee, you're not a…" she stopped when she remembered. Jevanta, the inner demon…

"Oh, right… you know what it's like, then?" she asked, unsure herself of where the conversation was going. She looked up.

"More then ever…"

CCCCCC

Tigger, Stork, Piper, Aerrow, Junko and Radarr were still outside, trying their best to fix the Condor… for the most part, it really wasn't working. Tigger and Junko were the only real helps, Piper, Aerrow and Radarr didn't know mechanics and Stork was curled up in a fetal position nearby some debris, panicking at being in the most diseased city in Atmos.

And being stranded there.

Scarlett was trying to comfort him, which also wasn't working, and was also trying to wake up Finn. Dumping water over his head could be dangerous; because it was likely the only water here was cholera-infested. Radarr crawled up to her. "Rawr?"

She only shrugged, not even sure what he was saying. Radarr shook his head and pantomimed something. Scarlett still wasn't sure…

Radarr sighed and slapped Finn, trying to figure out how to wake the sharpshooter up. Suddenly, the blonde looked up in a daze. "Wha…?"

Radarr looked proud of himself and Scarlett grinned. "Finn! You're alive!"

"Yeah… I'm alive…"

He didn't notice her cheeks had turned red.

"This _will_ take awhile," Tigger said, with a wrench- the same one that had Aladds picture on it- trying to fix up sheets of metal that had fallen as Piper tried to drill a piece in, with little success. Junko was on the other side of the air sac, doing about the same thing.

Suddenly, they heard footsteps. Aerrow, who had been _on top _of the air sac, was the first one to see who it was…

Dark Ace, holding up his red-glowing blade, stood in the grass below.

"Time to _fix_ the problem…" he hissed.

CCCCCC

"Whoa…" Ralph Senites trailed off as he and Rondana walked through the windowless upper halls of the palace. This had to be the third… fourth… fifth or so floor, he couldn't remember. "Dang, this place is huge,"

"I don't know why they even _need_ all this space," the girl said, and Ralph gave her a strange look.

"You _lived here_ and you still don't know what all the space is for?" he asked. Rondana shrugged.

"Maybe the construction people just got bored and decided to have fun with the project, who knows," she said. "I just need to find-"

She stopped suddenly and pulled open a door, checking inside.

"Yep. I found it."

She walked into the small, fourth-floor study the girl had always been slightly obsessed with, Ralph following. The first thing Rondana noticed was that this room had a different feel about it then it did a year ago… the entire area, shelves, books, even walls and carpets were all covered in a thin layer of dust, giving the room a grey tone. It looked like someone had been here a few hours ago- there were footstep marks in the dust- but other then that, it looked… lifeless. Lifeless and stiff.

"Dang, this is creepy," Ralph said. "Isn't there a bigger library downstairs?"

Rondana shook her head. "I need this one… there's something in here… I need to know about the goddesses," she said. "I need to know what this hype is about Essebola," _Yeah, so I can find her weakness and get rid of Ashelle…_

_And you couldn't find that in the library downstairs? _Ralph thought. "You could have just asked me,"

Rondana looked at him, "What do you mean?"

"I know about the goddesses. I live only a bit west of Populus, and we all about worship the goddesses back in the villages…" he trailed off and walked to one of the books that was open on the desk.

"Whoever was here earlier was trying to learn about the relations between Esstuberculosis and Essebola," he said, peering at the pages, "But that's obvious. Esstuberculosis was the alpha goddess, the leader, and Essebola didn't like authority, so their Clans just…went at it,"

Rondana looked confused for a moment. "But Essebola disappeared, didn't she?"

"That's the confusing thing," the brunette boy said, absentmindedly flipping pages of the book. He looked up. "See, no one knows what _happened_ to Essebola. She was never seen with the other seven goddesses, and Esshydra hardly ever wrote about her,"

"Esshydra? You mean the cholera goddess? Why would she write about her?" This didn't make any sense, Rondana was thinking, this was just… weird...

"They don't really teach about the goddesses in Populus, do they…?" Ralph asked.

"Kind of, but not much," the girl said, walking toward him and looking at the book, "They kind of expect you to know about them…"

"I'll start at the beginning, then," Ralph started. "Okay, in the beginning, there were four messengers-"

"I knew _that_," Rondana added, giggling slightly, "Just not about where the goddesses really came from…"

"Well, no one really knows that." The boy agreed.

"Why don't they?"

"It's obvious. Nobody wrote anything about them. Esshydra- you know, the cholera goddess- she only started writing about them _later._ So no one knew."

"Why did the cholera goddess write about them?"

Ralph shrugged, "It doesn't really matter. But accordingly, she told us most of the information Pathos now knows about the goddesses. Esstuberculosis was the oldest one, the leader, and the first one to appear in mythology. She was the one who took over Pathos to begin with,"

With no response from Rondana, he continued; "Essleprae- the leprosy goddess- was her little sister. Esstuberculosis' disease was often renowned as a disease of beauty and love, not just here but also all over Atmos. Leprosy was a disfiguring disease, often 'marking' the so called 'sinful ones'. In short, the Tuberculosis and Leprosy Clans were also rivals." He flipped through the book again, "It wasn't well known, but Esstuberculosis tried to kill her sister. The attempt failed, and Essleprae survived, as did her Clan. But they were the lowest of the eight Clans."

Rondana nodded, following what he was saying. "Go on…"

"Then there was Esstyphi- the typhoid goddess- and she was the sadistic one. Her unusual forms of finding pleasure had nothing to do with her disease, though," Ralph said, starting to sound a bit like a textbook. "Legend has it she would take away the voices of her victims and then torture them, enjoying their pain and their inability to scream…"

Rondana shuddered. "That's just creepy. But what about her Clan?"

"Her Clan was about as bad. They weren't really _violent, _but… you know… creepy…" He trailed off. "Esstyphis best friend was Essanopheles, the Malaria goddess. Essanopheles was known to revive the dead. To keep Pathos stable through all the epidemics, the mobs, you get the idea- she would revive young ones who had died so they could have another twenty or so years of life- although it was never proven she really did that- but her jealousy soon got to her. Essanopheles and her Clan were often nicknamed 'Third Place' because Esstuberculosis and Essvaricella were much more power. Essanopheles hated this stereotype against her Clan, and as revenge, she stopped reviving people, and Pathos' population began to fall… slowly,"

_And here I was thinking we were still stable, _Rondana thought. "But if there's no proof she ever revived them, then why did the population go down?"

"I don't know that either," Ralph said, almost apologetically, and shrugged. "But Essvaricella- the smallpox goddess- didn't seen to mind her nickname, 'Second Place'… well, no one ever called her that, but you know, it's fitting," he added, and Rondana laughed. "She was annoyed with something else.

See, as the rest of Atmos came into the modern era, they managed to slow down a lot of diseases themselves. The one they completely eliminated was smallpox. Because smallpox still existed here, the rest of Atmos tried to distance them from Pathologica, knowing that trying to go into the Terra to stop the disease there would trigger a rather _violent_ reaction from its people. Essvaricella hated that they had killed her disease, and her Clan hated it as well. She planned revenge on the rest of Atmos, although so far, it hasn't been fulfilled…"

"I actually feel kind of sorry for her," Rondana remarked, earning her a strange look from Ralph.

"Okkayy…"

"Ah, you know what I mean," the girl added, and Ralph nodded.

"I guess…"

"What about Esshydra? It seems like all of the goddesses were vengeful of something," Rondana wondered aloud.

Ralph filled in the blank. "Esshydra was the only one not _really_ vengeful of anyone. She wrote about how vengeful all the _other_ goddesses were. Her Clan loved her,"

"So far, I like her best,"

"You're from Esstuberculosis' Clan, right?" the brunette asked suddenly. Rondana nodded. "Ah… I'm from Esshydras…"

"Lucky! I get the crazy leader and you get the _nice_ one…"

"She's not _all _that crazy," a voice that sounded exactly like Rondanas hissed. Both people jumped. Who-?

Of course.

Ashelle.

--

I think I overdid myself with this chapter... seriously, I've never hit 3,000 words for a chappie before, and when I started this I figured I'd merge two chapters into one, because I thought they were too short by themselves... apparently not, lol. I know, most of you already write 3000+ chappies, I usually don't, so yah... just let me pride myself on this one or something... yay. :D


	11. Centrivita

**Chapter 11: Centrivita**

"They're everywhere,"

Kellesey looked up to see a familiar brunette walk toward her. "Hi, Selena," she said dryly. Despite the current war, the eight year old was bored out of her mind.

Suddenly she noticed a strange rod Selena was holding behind her back. At the end was a sharp, curved blade. The girl clearly made no actual effort to hide it.

Kellesey bounced upward from the table she had been laying on and landed foot-first on the floor, her pink dress collecting around her legs. "Is that a scythe?"

Selena giggled and held it up, "Yeah, it is…"

"Where did you get that? Nobody's had them since… thousands of years here on Pathos. Is that an antique? From the fifth floor?" Everyone knew the fifth floor of the palace was the ancient floor, the one where everything from pre-Queneture time- over 500 years ago- was stored as the rest of the palace was renovated. No one ever went through those things anymore. Obviously, there was much more of it, but on Pathos most useless, old objects were tossed into the Wastelands. All that was left of real history here could be found on the fifth floor.

Not like any foreign historian would dare to come this close to the heart of Pathologica to find out what was really there.

"No, this is mine. I've had it for a long time now," At this, Selena seemed to take on a lighter, but hollowed tone, which seemed to creep her friend out.

"But you're eight,"

Selena just shrugged and laid the scythe down on the table. "There are too many rogues in the palace," she complained, changing the subject.

Kellesey wasn't listening. "Where did you get that?" she asked. The scythe looked too new to be antique.

"Uh… Atmosia?"

Her voice fluctuated uneasily, and the blonde shook her head. "They don't sell that in Atmosia. I know, I've tried. Wait-" she paused- "What's your last name again?"

Before Selena could answer Kellesey looked at the weapon again. Engraved in silver on the rod was the word: Centrivita. And then she realized how much she really didn't know about her friend…

But she had thought the Centrivita had all died out. Centrivita was the first royal family of Pathos, renowned to have ruled during the time the goddesses still physically existed on Atmos before going for immortality. There had only been 100 of them, and all had died out several thousand years ago.

Hadn't they? Nothing from the Centrivita family had survived… but the scythe…

"Who are you?"

Selena grabbed the scythe and started to walk away, when Kellesey stopped her. "Well? What is it? I won't tell anyone."

The brunette spun around harshly. "Tell anyone what?" she hissed, with a ferocity not normally seen in a pre-preteen.

Suddenly, it hit Kellesey. At first, her conclusion made no sense, but what did make sense in Atmos? She was pretty sure one or two of those Storm Hawk friend people were messengers themselves. So maybe it did make sense if she thought Selena was one of the original Centrivitas…

"You're one of the original Centrivita, aren't you?" she asked, wording it out exactly how it had sounded in her mind.

Before the girl could respond, Kellesey added- "Did you know the goddesses personally?!" she demanded. "That would be so cool!" she giggled, not realizing the real consequences of her friend being a Centrivita.

"No. I didn't."

Kellesey didn't realize that her friends' cold tone- but her truth- had verified the blondes' theory. "But… why? Why didn't you meet them?"

"Kellesey," Selena said slowly, "The goddesses don't exist. I thought you knew that."

Suddenly, the other girl was the confused one. "How can they not-?"

"Have you ever heard of Algia Centrivita?" she asked suddenly. Kellesey shook her head. "Algia was the granddaughter of Loralei Centrivita, known as the first queen of Pathos."

"So?"

"I'm Algia."

"But you're Selena-" Kellesey said, shaking her head. 'Algia' shook her head.

"Names are easy to change," she said softly, knowingly.

"But if you're her… then you're…"

"5,000 or so years old. I didn't count."

Somehow, Kellesey shouldn't have been surprised- after all, that was her theory the whole time- but she still was. Even though her Sky Knight- or soon to be Sky Knight- was over 500 years old. But it also made sense that on the Terra where your life span is even shorter then it should be one would be even more obsessed with immortality. Had Centrivita chosen to be immortal? But how?

"What happened to the rest of them?" she asked suddenly, meaning the other 99 Centrivita. That wasn't her only question. She had many…

"I'm not sure. Some are still in the palace. My brother, Maurice… Mason… he's one of them," Selena- Algia- said, "He's immortal too."

Maurice. Kellesey hadn't even known his last name before now. Had Ashelle? He was in her squadron, after all…

"But… how are you immortal?" she asked, trying to figure this out.

Selena shrugged. "Ask Mason. He probably knows."

"You don't know-" Kellesey started when she cut herself off. Why was that important right now? Right now, she realized, Ashelle was upstairs, probably thinking she had some sort of god-like power, when she really didn't. She could get herself killed! I've got to warn her!

She was about to run off when she skidded to a stop again. One more question. "Why did you tell me all this?" she asked, facing Selena one last time.

"I'm tired of keeping it a secret."

CCCCCC

"She's not all that crazy,"

Had they really been that easy to find?

"How would you know? Aren't you her rival, as Essebola and all?" Rondana tested, gripping her staff in case the queen fired a blow. Besides the rivalry, though, Rondana still knew nothing about Essebola. That wasn't good.

Ashelle rolled her eyes. "That's a Clan thing. Not between the goddesses," she said, as if she knew better.

Rondana shot a glace at Ralph, who shook his head. "That's not-"

He was cut off when Ashelle raised a crystal into the air. Instantly a massive blue orb- a forcefeild?- opened up and pushed the two back. Rondana flew into a nearby bookshelf and Ralph went straight through the side wall, landing in another room.

The boy hit the ground. That's not what I had in mind, he thought, right before the impact- delayed reaction!- knocked him out.

"Aren't field crystals nice?" Ashelle asked sweetly, sickly. Rondana shook her head- she hadn't been thrown as far as Ralph, and therefore wasn't unconscious- and made to run through the hole in the wall to see if he was okay when Ashelle stopped her- with a blazer crystal.

It worked like a flamethrower, Rondana realized, and she managed to dodge it just as such, only receiving a- stinging- blow to the arm.

Her sleeve caught on fire. Panicked, the girl grabbed a book and smacked the flame so hard that it managed to extinguish, although she had heard a 'crack' as she did that-

I really hope that's the spine of the book, not my arm…

But then she noticed something weird. The sleeve was pretty burnt, but her arm was just fine.

Right now, that wasn't a problem. Heart pounding loudly in her head, she turned to 'Essebola'.

"What the hell is your problem!?"

Of course, she already knew Ashelles problem, but a girl can vent.

Ashelle Queneture only stared, and Rondana noticed she was looking at the sleeve. What was wrong with the sleeve? It wasn't like it was surprising it had burnt, Rondana wasn't a goddess, all-immune to fire…

"Rondana, you never really knew what a reincarnate was, did you?"

CCCCCC

He heard the sound of younger feet running toward him.

Ralph blinked, having only been out for mere minutes when he saw Rondanas sister, Kellesey, running. He saw a hole in the wall directly in view- that must have been painful, he thought, though he couldn't even remember the crash.

Yikes.

Kellesey stopped and looked at him. Both were in the hall, apparently Ralph had landed in the hallway and not a separate room altogether. Even further.

Double yikes.

The blonde gave him a weird look. "What happened to you?"

"I'm not really sure," he trailed off and tried to sit up. A blast of pain went through his body.

Triple yikes, you're out!

"Yeah. That hurts," he said, strangely calm, and lay back down. He turned back to Kellesey.

"What brings you here?"

Kellesey shook her head. "No time. Is it safe to go in-" she motioned to the study where he had been earlier- "or are they… fighting or something?"

"Yeah, they're fighting," Ralph answered, "That's kind of how I got here."

"Oh," Kellesey grumbled in frustration and stomped her foot, "I need to help Ashelle! She could be in serious trouble!"

"You'd choose saving your boss over your sister?" the brunette asked, surprised. "That's new."

"You wouldn't know. You don't have one," she said knowingly, like Selena had earlier.

Ralph shook his head. "She's five years older then me. Her name's Mecha."

It took the girl a minute to realize he meant his sister. "Oh," was all she said.

"So… you gonna go in there?" he asked randomly, as if to try and change the mood.

"I don't know."

Rondana or Ashelle?

Ashelle or Rondana?

Neither?

Or both?

"Well, make your choice,"

CCCCCC

"Society sucks,"

Ashlyn summed up the entire problem in two words. Society wasn't really accepting, on any Terra.

"Yeah, that's about it," Lee sighed. "It's like you can never live normally, and for things you can't control."

"Life isn't fair."

Both had learned that a long time ago.

"You know, we have a lot in common," Lee said randomly. He looked up to see if Ashlyn agreed. She nodded.

"Sorry about landing us in this mess," she added, apologizing. "If it wasn't for my bad direction skills we wouldn't have gotten lost,"

Lee shrugged. "Trust me, I'd rather be here then dealing with Dark Fart…"

Ashlyn snickered.

Suddenly, she quieted and looked up, down the hallway.

"Did you hear something?"

Both were silent, listening. There was the weird tapping sound of footsteps. They couldn't tell how many people were coming as each step echoed through the hallway, ringing softly, as if the people were giving off a weak effort to be quiet.

From the bend in the hallway- where it loomed out of view- two figures appeared. The first was a tall male with cropped black hair and the second a smaller girl wearing a green dress, short, brown hair framing her face.

Ashlyn stared.

The girl was holding a scythe.

"There's two of them," she said softly to the older one, pointing. "The leper and the demon,"

Maurice nodded. "Looks like they got lost, idiots…"

I can hear you! Ashlyn thought, annoyed. And I am not an idiot!

"Wow, the other ones so short!" Selena giggled. She didn't care Ashlyn and Lee were listening.

"You're not one to talk!" Ashlyn retorted in Lees defense, angrily. Selena turned red.

"You shouldn't be here either! Lepers not allowed!"

Ashlyns blood boiled. She ran up to the girl. "Okay, you know what-!"

"What? You're not armed!" Selena taunted. "What can you do to me?"

Ashlyn slugged her.

Maurice was furious.

"Hey, if you have a problem with the people who live here then just get the hell out." He said firmly. Ash rolled her eyes.

Meanwhile, Lee, who had been through these kinds of confrontations many times before, had another idea.

Sneakily, he slid a glowing green stone out of his pocket. Quickly, the man activated the crystal.

"URANIUM!" he yelled, as some sort of warning right before it went off. Only Ashlyn understood what he meant, and she ducked for cover.

"Awesome!"

Mushroom cloud.

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Directly upstairs two floors, the infiltrators- Kai, Shadow, Luthor, and Johnny- heard a massive crashing noise.

A group of random talons they had just run into; all amateurs; looked around in fear, wondering what had caused the crash.

Suddenly the floor burst open.

A torrent of smoke burst from the opening. Shards of wood fell into the hole and the talons, terrified- and only three of them- scattered and ran off down the opposite hall, taking a turn and disappearing out of view. Well, that problems fixed.

As for this one…

"Oh Atmos, what did they do-?" Shadow started when Kai grabbed her arm and sped off the opposite way the talons had run. "So much for our plan of finding Ashelle herself. We need to get out of here."

"We had a plan of finding Ashelle?"

"Well, all four of us could have probably creamed her if we got the chance," Kai said, "That was my idea…"

"We are so doomed, doomed!" Luthor, behind them, yelled. "Oh, I bet it was Lee who did this, this!"

Johnny nodded, "This is awesome!"

Shadow sighed. The group skidded down a flight of stairs and landed in the foyer, away from the nuclear explosion. The uranium had no effect here; evidently the crystal wasn't that powerful.

But then again, their goal hadn't been to destroy Terra Pathologica.

Kai looked up and saw through the window the back of a familiar talon. Dark Ace stood in front of his friends, and part of the Condor was in view.

Ace's energy blade was in the air. Kai activated his staff and ran to help.

Shadow, Luthor and Johnny all stopped, and watched the dark-haired teen break through the window- where was the door again?- and landed near the Cyclonian.

All were pale, all thinking the same thing.

"Oh, shit. He's back."

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There was the sound of breaking glass.

Before the Dark Ace could do anything, Kai had landed, and given Dark Ace a blow to the head. Ace ducked when the teen made to hit him again, this time with his staff, and managed to trip the boy.

Shadow made the second move, coming in from the back like Kai had, and nearly decapitating Ace with her axe when she stopped, and hit the ground.

You almost killed him just now! Griffeys voice rang in her head, though the others only heard squawking. Just one extra swing of the axe-

I'm not killing him. She couldn't.

Luthor and Johnny just walked in through the door, about 20 feet away to the left, not bothering to sneak-attack Dark Ace when he would already see it coming, his eyes now trained on all his surroundings, not just in front of him.

What is this, 20 to one? I could still get them. They're all- or most of them- are amateurs, he thought.

"Kai, where've you been?" Finn said. Kai sighed.

"We had a plan."

Aerrow- and the rest of them- now had their weapons out, crystals ready, waiting for Ace to make the second-first move, if that made any sense.

He didn't, so they did.

Aerrow ran first, energy blade in the air. In a moment his weapon and the talons' were locked, Aerrow trying to keep him occupied for a brief second so the others could get in. Piper and Scarlett grabbed their weapons and shot, though Ace withstood the blow.

Then Junko got involved.

Ace saw the wallop out of the corner of his vision and quickly ducked, throwing Aerrow off balance, and then kicking the Sky Knight in the stomach. Aerrow fell to the ground and made to get up again. Ace shot at him, easy, simply. One down.

Piper, seeing Aerrow was unconscious, had a brief panic attack and did the first thing she could thing of: she hit Ace upside the head with her staff, leaving room for Junko to come in, who hit him so hard in the back the man fell over. He spun around and, with an unusually forceful kick, took out both Storm Hawks.

"Anyone else want a go?" he hissed, confidence restored. These kids were easy to beat.

Okay, nobody totally… creams my friends! Shadow thought angrily. She couldn't kill him; she knew that, did she even want to kill him? She shook that thought out of her mind, the complications of it got confusing.

From twenty feet away she shot at Ace, and then ran while he was distracted and hit him over the head like Piper had, then jumped up into the air and latched onto the wall- or, rather, the upper beam of the window- effectively dodging his kick.

He then looked up and saw her.

So you're here too.

Meanwhile, Stork was huddled in a corner: "Cyclonians… disease… my Condor… doom… doom…" he shuddered and started hyperventilating.

"Well, he's no help,"

--

**40 reviews! I love you people! :D**

**Sorry, this chapter is pretty crappy...**


	12. Reincarnate Goddess

**Chapter 12: Reincarnate Goddess**

"_Well, he's no help."_

Stork didn't say anything, but only responded with a shudder and "Doom…"

Tigger didn't know what was going on. Deep inside the bridge of the Condor, the mechanic was also trying to fix the airship. The girl screwed in another bolt- _only 8,000 more screws to go until the bridge is fixed, _she thought sarcastically before she heard a crash.

_Oh great, what did they do now?!_

She looked through a damaged window to see Dark Ace.

_Oh boy._

Tigger grabbed her staff and dashed outside.

Meanwhile, it was hard to tell just _who_ was winning. Ace was taking down opponents like dominoes, but the others still vastly outnumbered him. They just needed a little extra backup…

"Hiya!"

Tigger ran into the vicinity, shooting at the Cyclonia, and before he could block, got in close and tripped him, her shortness making the effort that much easier.

_I assume that's the backup,_ someone thought.

Kai followed up, kicking Dark Ace in the stomach- _hard_- followed by a crystal attack from Piper, which knocked the Cyclonian out.

"That was easy!"

Everyone looked at Johnny, who had just gone into 'easy button mode'. So there was power in numbers.

"Yeah…" Scarlett said, "About that…"

She pointed to a group of talons previously out of view, about thirty feet away. _Man, we're always busy around here…!_

Shadow sighed.

_We'll keep them occupied… for now…_

CCCCC

_Run._

Ashlyn and Lee sprinted through the hall, back the way Selena and Mason had come earlier. The other two Pathologicans had disappeared from view, probably caught up in the ash cloud that spanned two floors.

"That was _genius!_" Ash exclaimed, hitting a stairwell that went up- apparently they'd been underground- and turned to the green haired man.

Lee panted, "Blasted short legs can't run very far…"

"It's not that much further," Ashlyn pointed out. "Probably another hall and the others will be near the back of the palace… unless they fled… or spontaneously combusted…"

Lee sighed.

There was the sound of more footsteps.

It was the exact same pitch as before, hollow, somewhat quiet. More Centrivitas, most likely, though they didn't realize it. But suddenly the footsteps picked up pace and Ashlyn was suddenly attacked by Selena.

The girl held a scythe at her neck, something Ash would have thought impossible up until now, but the curve of the blade fit well to the curve of her neck, the cold metal only a centimeter away from flesh. Ash- and the eight year old- had a sudden surge of hatred toward each other, but the girl stood perfectly still, as if she had been anticipating the random attack.

A split second later a much taller figure did the same thing to Lee. Mason held an ornate blade to the green haired man and snickered.

"_Nobody_ gets away with trying to destroy this palace," Selena hissed venomously, clearly too small to be much of a match for Ashlyn, although the scythe was large- and sharp!- enough to make that not a problem.

"If you haven't noticed," Mason added, "This palace is our namesake- it's _ours._"

"And what are you going to do this time?" Lee asked lightly, accepting his possible doom quiet nicely.

"I mean, so what if you kill us?" Ashlyn asked. "It's not like there aren't other people who won't destroy this palace eventually."

The two, apparently, had another plan.

"We won't cease to kill for this place," Mason said firmly, "As I said, it's our n-"

"Your namesake. Whatever, we get it," Lee said, annoyed.

_Namesake._

Ashlyn realized; there was only one group of people whos namesake was this palace.

And they made it too obvious, every time…

CCCCCC

"_You never really knew what a reincarnate was, did you?"_

"What do you mean?" was the first question that came to mind. Above four stories and on the other side of the building, the mini-nuclear blast had no effect. Rondana looked up to Ashelle, who only nodded for a moment.

"So you don't know," the girl continued. Rondana didn't want to agree, although it was true.

"Why does it matter?"

Another obvious question.

"So he told you about the goddesses, but completely skipped over reincarnates… that's conveinant…" Ashelle was talking to herself.

"Stop being so vague! What is it?" Rondana demanded. Ashelle smiled.

"There's something _about_ reincarnates most people don't know. Reincarnates aren't just a dead persons soul in some new body. Reincarnates are someone else, but they look exactly like the deceased person they're after…" Ashelle trailed off, probably not liking to refer to herself as 'deceased'. "You know that," the queen added, "Obviously."

"The weird thing about them, thought," she continued, her tone making Rondana feel like some kind of freak, "Is that everything they _are_ is the opposite of normal. They act… crazy, weird. Which you've proven."

"Where are you going with this…?" Rondana asked, wondering why Ashelle was bothering to explain to her when she could just kill her instead. Ashelle shook her head.

"The creepy part," she continued, "Is that even their bodily systems are oppositic, to a point. They still have blood, and et cetera, of course… no one really knows just how far off they are. But it's like this," she said. "A poison will strengthen them and an antidote will kill them,"

For once, Rondana didn't say anything.

"And _that's_ why I was surprised by the burn. Because, above all, it _proves_ you're my reincarnate."

_If a reincarnate is the opposite of a normal person, and a normal person gets burned…_

It took the girl a minute to realize Ashelle meant the blazer crystal she had singed her with earlier. "Reincarnates are immune to fire?" she asked. That didn't make sense, she'd been burned before…

"No… there's some sort of line, a definition as to how far it goes. It depends on who was your original, who the reincarnate was based off of. And if it was someone very powerful…"

"I'm the opposite of powerful?" Rondana was getting even more confused. She didn't really think of herself as weak…

"It's the opposite _type _of power. Not that it matters." Ashelle said coolly. "I know my power pretty well, of course."

_What, is your power ice? Is that why she's 'immune' to fire all of a sudden? Or what?_

Rondana was caught up in her own thoughts at the moment. What _was_ Ashelles power? She couldn't really define it. Goddesses? Maybe, possibly, but Esstuberculosis had a problem with Essebola, no matter how often Ashelle tried to deny it.

_This is getting confusing…_

A better question would be what was Ashelles weaknesses, because those would be her powers.

_The oblivion crystal. _That was a weakness, right? Whenever she was in the presence of it, she always acted differently…

"And if I know my power well, that means I already know _your _weakness." Ashelle said.

_I know your weakness too!_

_Although I'm not really sure what mine is…_

Ashelle continued, as Rondana didn't say anything. "Don't you know what the opposite of a goddess is?" she asked suddenly. Rondana thought.

"…a demon?"

Kellesey, listening in on the other side of the door, shook her head. _But you're not a goddess! _She thought, her ideas going faster then they should have been. _So she can't be a demon! _

_I think…_

Every eight year old gets confused about things, but for once, the problem spurred on Ashelles half.

_"Yep. Rondana, you're actually a demon,"_ Ashelle said, Kellesey still listening from the other side of the door. It was clear that the queen was trying to scare Rondana, catch her off guard…

Again, Rondana didn't say anything. She was trying to put it together in her mind. She didn't _feel _like a demon, and to the rest of Atmos she certainly didn't act like one.

Suddenly, the girl heard a strange whisper coming from the wall: "She's not really Essebola!" it said, softly enough for Ashelle not to hear, as Rondana was much closer to the wall, standing right next to it, actually. The only reason she hadn't thrown open the door and run out yet was because she still felt she needed to stop her.

_Always trust the wall…?_ Rondana wondered. But she recognized that voice.

_But why is my sister here? And helping me? _The girl wondered, but she turned to Ashelle anyway.

"That would be true… but _you're _not really a goddess."


	13. Just because you leave

**Chapter 13**

Ashelle heard her.

Kellesey. Ashelle had heard the wall- _talk_? She knew that voice.

Of course she was a goddess!

Why would Kellesey think otherwise?

Ashelle shot at the wall where she had heard the voice and the door blew up.

Kellesey, who had been behind it, stumbled backward. Ashelle could see her now.

"Hmm… of all people I wouldn't expect _you_ to come here." She said coldly, harshly. Her own squadron member. "What makes you think I'm not a goddess?"

Kellesey, bleeding, and with a shard of glass- where did that come from?- protruding from her wrist, shook slightly. Her Sky Knight- or soon-to-be- was much more intimidating them she had thought previously. Pale, the girl whispered, "Centrivita," before passing out.

Ashelle put it together.

"Centrivita…" she muttered, "Damn them."

Ralph managed to get up and turned to Ashelle.

"You know," he said, annoyed, "Knocking out your own squad mates tends to _ruin_ your reputation with them."

He threw a blazer crystal at her and she dodged, hitting it with her sword as if it were a baseball bat. The crystal went tumbling into a wall, which burst into tiny flames, like sparklers.

"Next time, work on your aim." She hissed.

Ralph ran.

Surprisingly, he passed Ashelle. He spun around and came to a sudden halt right behind her and in a split second had a knife to her neck.

"Next time, work on your defense."

Ashelle cursed under her breath.

Rondana, meanwhile, panicked and ran to her sister. Kellesey was definitely unconscious. She looked up to Ashelle, "You really _hate_ people, don't you?"

"Right now, we have bigger problems," Ralph said.

"Oh, yeah…"

She stood and looked at the queen. No matter what Ralphs plan was, there was no way she could kill her.

_Uh… what do we do now?_ Rondana sent the brunette a look. Her plan hadn't gone this far.

Ralph shrugged.

_Oh yeah, genius!_

Ashelle noticed they were stalling. She jumped and broke out of the boys grip. Her sword now back in her hand, she stepped back from the duo.

"End all the inside jokes. I know you two wouldn't _really_ kill me,"

Of course.

"I doubt you would kill us, though." Ralph added. He stepped forward.

"We're all _way_ too soft to kill each other," the boy added.

"I'm _not_ soft!" Ashelle shrieked, walking up to him. "You want me to have to prove it to you?!"

"Do you want to?"

Rondana realized what he was doing. He was luring her into trying to attack him… but why? Did he have some sort of plan?

"What are you doing?" she asked, low enough so that Ashelle wouldn't hear.

"Just go along with it."

Ashelle growled, "Do I _want_ to?"

She stopped.

"Do I want to…"

"This is _not _the time for her to be indecisive," Ralph muttered.

"She's still human. Just roll with it." Rondana said. Ashelle wasn't strong enough to kill, only a few people were, she figured.

"Okay, well, I found this and I thought if she attacked this would end it…"

He slid a dark violet crystal out of his pocket as Ashelle, only several feet away, was lost in thought. She was even _watching_ them, but somehow, was off in some sort of daydream, not paying attention.

Rondana stared.

"That's an_ oblivion crystal,_" she said, and Ralph laughed.

"Yeah… It was on a shelf in some random room in this palace and I found it… wasn't she revived from oblivion or something?"

Ashelle heard them this time, and looked up.

She saw the crystal- or even the glint of the purple reflected on the wall- and screamed bloody murder.

The girl jumped back another two steps and held her sword out defensively.

"There's no way!"

_Apparently Oblivion is a lot worse then I thought,_ Rondana thought and shook her head. "Relax. I'm pretty sure you can't go to Oblivion twice."

"Actually, it's never been tested before," Ralph added, "So it's possible you could. I just thought this could come in handy."

Before Ashelle could do anything he threw the stone into the air and a violet light filled the room. Rondana assumed this was Ralph's overall plan.

"_Duck_!" he yelled, pulling her down as a flash illuminated around the area.

"What did you _do?_" she asked, still wondering what exactly was the point of this.

"Oblivion crystals don't work on friends," he said randomly, "And you're my friend, right?"

Rondana giggled. "Yeah…"

"What's so funny?" he asked, but a small smile spread across his face.

"Nothing…" she trailed off. "You're, uh, really good at this."

Ralph smiled when suddenly there was another explosion. Both covered their ears and looked at each other.

"Lee," they said simultaneously.

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"That was _so_ not part of the plan!" Ashlyn yelled as another uranium crystal started smoking behind them. So much for Centrivita. If she was right, and the Centrivita were immortal, it wouldn't matter anyway. Why did they make it so obvious all of a sudden, anyway?

"Ah, but it was fun!" Lee protested, snapping her back into the exploding reality.

"Yeah, it was…"

CCCCCC

Rondana looked up. "You'd think- oh, holy crap."

"What?" Ralph stood up. Ashelle was unconscious. "How is that surprising? It was this massive, unanticipated blast, followed by another, massive unanticipated blast."

"It wasn't the blast. It was the crystal." Rondana said. "Since you can't go to Oblivion twice- apparently- it… knocked her out, I guess. I could have done that myself."

"Yeah, but she'll be completely out of it until someone gets the crystal out of here." Ralph added. He threw the rock into a bookshelf and the wood fell, covering the Oblivion Crystal in debris. "And that might be awhile,"

"Oh, this is _genius._" Rondana said, wishing she had thought of this sooner.

"Okay, now we should get out of h-" he stopped, "Uh, what about Kellesey?"

The eight year old had stopped bleeding, but was still unconscious.

"Well, when she wakes up, she'll probably panic and bring Ashelle downstairs or something… and then she'll wake up…"

"Yeah, let's get her out of here too," Ralph decided.

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"They'll regret this!" Selena shrieked, clearly furious. "_DAMN URANIUM!_"

She threw her scythe into a wall and Mason sighed. "They're just civilians, they probably won't even get away…" he said, trying to console her.

"THEY FREAKING HAVE _URANIUM!_"

Mason groaned. "We're _so_ screwed," he muttered, somehow calm.

Selena shook her head. "No we're not…" she started, "No we're not-"

"Why did you have to freaking _tell_ the other girl?" Mason asked all of a sudden. It took Selena a moment to understand what he meant.

"You mean Kellesey? About Centrivita?"

"Yes, her. Why?" Mason demanded. "I think the other one figured it out too. You want to live like freaks?"

"I did it because I was bored." Selena said and shrugged. "I don't really care, anyway."

_5,000 years and she's still as impulsive as an eight year old,_ Mason thought, annoyed.

"Besides," the girl continued, "Even if someone tells the rest of Atmos, who would believe them?" she asked. "They've never even _heard_ of Centrivita."

CCCCCC

The talons ran for their lives as soon as they saw the Sky Knights, squadron members, and other random people- and a cockroach?- raise their weapons. Crystal staffs, energy blades, and a girls axe all raised into the air, glowing.

"That was ea-" Johnny started when everyone gave him a look.

"No more easy button," Shadow said, shaking her head.

Suddenly two figures bolted through one of the undestroyed doors, smoke and steam pouring out behind them. Both were partially covered in ash.

"Uranium," Lee explained. Everyone sighed.

"We're all so _weird_." Scarlett muttered, shaking her head.

Stork shuddered. "Whatever… I need to get out of here… twitch…" he said, and the others watched him, somewhat concerned. When he started _saying_ movements rather then _doing_ them, then there was a problem.

Stork twitched. "What?! What are you looking at?"

"Hey, wait…" Tigger trailed off, "Where's Rondana and Ralph? We can't leave without them! They're the only people who know how to get off this place alive without an airship."

Ashlyn coughed loudly.

"Well, you do too…" Tigger turned red. Ashlyn spotted Mr. Cockroach again and ran over to hug him. Several people backed up slightly and Stork nearly had a panic attack.

"Cockroach…! Infected…!"

Finn shook his head, "He'll get over it."

CCCCCC

Meanwhile, Rondana and Ralph dashed down the stairs, Rondana holding her sister. "Okay, we'll just put her somewhere and she'll wake up later," Rondana said, talking to herself.

"Except for the guards," the boy said absentmindedly, and Rondana looked up. A group of guards and random talons lingered downstairs.

"Crap," the girl muttered. She looked around frantically.

"Okay, you know what, I'll just put her on a table or something and then we _get the hell out of here._" She decided and took off, Ralph following.

"You've lived in this place all your life and now you hate it. That's weird," he said, but she was already on the floor.

"Here! Take her!" Rondana yelled and tossed the smaller girl at one of the guards, realizing that the table had been destroyed in the blast. Said guard managed to catch her, but he and several others were so surprised that they didn't attack the two as they scrambled for the door.

Ralph noticed multiple windows and a door were completely destroyed, as was half the wall. _Oh Atmos, they must have had a __**lot**__ of uranium…_

Rondana ran out the back and saw everyone and the near-destroyed Condor. "Okay, well, we're… alright…" she trailed off. "Hi, everyone! How are you?"

Stork scrambled back into the Condor and Ashlyn rolled her eyes as Ralph walked out. "That was fun," he muttered and turned to everyone else.

"_Now_ we're getting out of here."

Just because you leave doesn't mean the problem goes away...

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The Oblivion crystal fell through a hole in the floor and hit Mason on the head.

"What the heck is this…?" he muttered, picking it up.

If the crystal was nowhere near Ashelle, wouldn't she wake up?

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Ashelle groaned and she felt a killer headache coming on. She looked up and noticed the study was destroyed.

"They tried to…" she trailed off and sat up.

"I'm going to _so_ kill them," she muttered. The girl looked around. She _really _hoped the rest of the palace didn't look this bad.

_You know what, I'm going to get to the Council __**now**__ and become a Sky Knight so nothing worse happens,_ she thought, _After all, their original plan was to make sure I didn't make a squadron. _

_We'll see how that works out…_


	14. Airships

**Chapter 14: Airships**

"Okay, okay. Dammit, _GO, you idiot_!"

Ashelle was in a bad mood.

It's not like she wouldn't be, after being nearly killed by her archenemy and her new friend, then being rather _rudely_ informed she wasn't a supernatural being. Not to mention her palace was more then a little messed up, courtesy of Lee's uranium crystal.

"Okay, so you want the squadron to shoot off to Atmosia _right now_ and become official? Our actual trial is in TWO WEEKS!" a particular blonde nine year old, now awake, complained as Ashelle hurried past her.

"You know why we're doing this?" the dark haired girl hissed.

"Uh…"

"It's because of your blasted sister, her friend, and by extension YOU." She accused. "You work for _me_, remember?"

Ashelle was still furious at Kelleseys apparent traitor-ness, but was trying to control herself so they could find the airship- an airship was hard to lose, but the palace was huge, and it could also be anywhere on the grounds, and losing an airship was quite the annoying thing.

"But you _aren't _a goddess!" Kellesey protested. "I didn't want you to try and use some unknown power and get hurt!"

"Then warn _me_, not Rondana!" Ashelle shrieked, losing her temper for a brief moment. Kellesey didn't say anything, and Ashelle took in a deep breath.

"Just. Find. Maurice." She growled.

Kellesey ran off.

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"Maurice! _Mau-_"

"Oh Atmos, IT'S _MASON!_" the teen yelled angrily, him and his sister clearly still annoyed as well. It was a bad day in Populus.

"Ashelle-wants-us-to-go-to-Atmosia," Kellesey pip-squeaked, noticing with fear the scythe embedded in the wall.

"What?" Mason calmed down and looked confused for a moment.

"Atmosia-Sky-Knight-test-Council-"

"Speak _ATMOS, _child!" Selena yelled, trying to pull her large blade out of the wall. She tugged and the thing pulled out with such momentum that it slammed into the other wall and the girl groaned. _This is going to take awhile…_

"Ashelle wants us to go the Sky Knight Council so we can become official," the girl said quietly, scared. This was a bad day for her, as well.

"But… the actual trial's in two weeks…"

"She wants to become official before anything else bad happens," Kellesey said, relaying the message.

"But… training… did we have enough…?"

"You'll. Be. Fine." The younger girl said firmly, "We just, uh… need to find the others…"

"That can't be too hard," Mason said as Selena pried her scythe out of the wall again.

"And the airship…"

"YOU _LOST_ THE AIRSHIP?!"

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Arcello and Sue wandered through the halls, looking for something to do, when suddenly a small brunette girl ran up to them.

"Alright, bimbos, which one of you lost the airship?"

The two were surprised at Selenas new language. Exchanging a glance with Sue, Arcello looked up.

"What do you mean, _'lost_' the airship…"

"I know it was you!" Selena yelled, her scythe looking more dangerous then ever. "You idiots lose everything!"

Sue scratched the back of his neck nervously, "Well… ah…"

The blade gleamed, and the man turned pale. "Err… well; how far away are the Wastelands, again?"

_They crashed the airship into the Wastelands…_

"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO TO OUR AIRSHIP?!"

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Ashelle could hear Selena yelling from the other side of the palace. _Oh crud, someone annoyed her, _she thought and ran off, the guard whom she had been previously interrogating shaking, standing near the door. His was _very_ pushy.

"What happened? Who died?" she asked, walking into the hallway and coming up behind Selena.

"They 'parked' our airship in the Wastelands," Selena grumbled hollowly. Ashelle spun around to face them.

"You did WHAT?!"

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_The light was hard to adjust to. What was going on? The last thing she could remember, she had died. And now what? Heaven was dark, like a cave, wasn't it?_

_Or maybe this was Hell. Crud._

"…_but you're in the future!" a blonde teenager said as a group of oddly dressed people and someone who looked exactly like herself began to argue._

_Ashelle glared at him, and in another flash held the sword up to his neck. This wasn't time for tricks! "What kind of future is this?" It was way too dark, they were in a cave. But why a cave? Why revive someone in a cave, of all places?_

_Rondana- how she knew that name was beyond her- tripped her with her leg. "Please don't kill the person who helped you out of oblivion," she said, annoyed._

"_That was rude," a blue-haired girl muttered._

"_She deserved it!"_

Ashelle revved up a random skimmer- actually, it was a talon's, but if someone could lose an airship they could just as easily lose their skimmer- and took off. Or at least, she attempted to. Populus Pathologicus was not a fancy city, and most of the streets were too narrow for even heliblades. She hoped civilians wouldn't mind if she and the others took off on the roofs of random buildings, but they needed to get to the Wastelands.

She knew the Wastelands were destructive and all, but she'd had this weird idea that their airship could be salvaged. After all, Arcello wasn't an idiot, and he wouldn't actually park an airship in the Wastelands without reason. At least, she hoped so.

The Wastelands were destructive and _Hell-like. _That was what had reminded her of her own revival. Apparently those Storm Hawks had found the oblivion crystal in the cave of Essanopheles.

And apparently the sharpshooter liked annoying people. Now whenever someone said, "Back to the future" she'd always think of him, which was incredibly annoying.

But what was strange about it was that, about a year ago, she and Rondana had been on the same side. Not friends, but they weren't trying to kill each other on sight. What had changed? They had saved this Terra _together._

Doctors. Of course, Rondana _could_ have stayed at Populus, but she had to go off with that wacko… that's what had changed. If it was doctors it was un-Pathologican, and as the new queen of… well, here… she wouldn't stand for that. Just blame the doctors, Ashelle…

A cold breeze whipped the girls' hair around as she flew off the edge of the Terra and started downwards, followed by Arcello and Maurice- Kellesey was _way_ too young for this. Right now, she couldn't see anything, rainclouds starting to move in. The chill was a relief, though, compared to the constant heat and humidity the Terra usually offered.

"Right there!" Arcello sped up and passed her on his heliblade, probably breaking some new speed limit. Ashelle looked through the fog- fog in the Wastelands? What?- and saw the outline of a large ship.

But it was perfectly intact.

"Well, let's just say that certain materials from certain diseased Terras of doom that make certain airships are apparently not flamma-"

"Cut to the chase, you idiot!" Ashelle said, annoyed.

"The airship was made on Pathos, and the material they used to make it isn't flammable." Arcello said quietly, peeved as well. "So I thought it would be a good parking spot so the rogues wouldn't mess with it…"

Maurice sighed with relief. "We thought you had destroyed it, dude."

"I'm not that stupid! Look, I tried to tell you guys, but Selena was about to kill me-"

Maurice took off, and Arcello suddenly noticed why. Their airship had blasted off into the atmosphere and was heading back toward the Terra.

Meanwhile, Ashelle stood near the controls. "I'm _so_ getting out of here."

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"Storm! STORM!" Stork started hyperventilating again as it began to drizzle, rocking himself back and forth in the grass.

"Uh, do you think he actually caught something? Like mindworms?" Scarlett asked cautiously, backing away slightly.

"That's just Stork for you. Not only does he panic, he had to get sick," Finn said annoyed when Shadow slapped him.

"He's not sick! He's just _acting_ sick because he thinks he got sick off all the sick people on this Terra and Stork had a phobia of sickness, you know."

"I'm confused," someone muttered.

"Okay!" Tigger said cheerfully, skipping outside, "Progress on the Condor is about 67 percent…"

"ONLY 67?!" Stork yelled, "No! My Condor is in the hands of a Rock Heart…"

"I didn't think he cared about the whole Storm Hawks- Rock Heart thing," Aerrow said, and Aladd nodded. "Ah well."

Tigger shrugged when suddenly it started pouring.

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"You could have WAITED!"

"Are you kidding?! I _waited_ for you to freaking FIND this blasted airship! Now we're leaving whether you like it or not!" Ashelle yelled to a disheveled Arcello and Maurice, who had had to chase her in the rain. The airship had been parked farther from Pathos then she had thought, and they spent five minutes following her over the Wastelands.

Arcello pulled out his ponytail and shook his sopping hair. "You're _waiting _for Kellesey, Sue and Selena to get here!"

"No! I'm not _waiting _for Sue!"

Kellesey wandered into the room, followed by Selena, who closed the entrance behind her. "Okay, we're ready to go," she said, tossing her scythe into a corner.

"You can't not-wait for Sue! He's a member of the squadron too!" Arcello yelled, ignoring the presence of the two younger girls.

"Why not? He's like, useless…" Ashelle trailed off and Kellesey nodded in agreement.

"And tell me what use _you_ all have that makes you useful," Arcello tested, peeved that they didn't value his brother in the squadron.

"Alright. I'm the only one here who's legal age, not to mention I actually have skills and some crystal knowledge, Kellesey can get away with _anything, _so she's a huge asset to us- Maurice is technically immortal, so you know, he'd be our first combat fighter, you're not really important, but we need at least five people in the squadron and you know this airship well," Ashelle said quickly and correctly, as if she had been planning this.

"What about Selena?"

"She has a scythe, you idiot!"

"Well, Sue can get a scythe too!" Arcello started but shut up when he saw the death glare Selena was giving him.

"You know, I don't have to _wait_ to throw you into the Wastelands!"

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Rondana suddenly heard a whirring sound and looked up. She noticed a large airship accented with silver and blood red shooting off toward Terra Atmosia.

"Oh boy… guys…?"

"What?" Kai looked up and recognized the massive vehicle instantly.

"Tigger?" Piper asked, noticing it as well.

"Chya?" the little girl replied, distracted screwing in a bolt on the outside area of the Condor while several people wandered inside, looking for shelter from the rain.

"Will the airship work at 67 percent?"


	15. Sandstorm

**Chapter 15: Sandstorm**

"Will the airship work at 67 percent?"

"_Well, _actually-" Tigger began, but they cut her off. _Well, actually, not really, because the engine's still messed up and if we go out in this weather it'll probably ka-put, not to mention the windshield wipers are broken, so it's not like we'll be able to see anything…_

Everyone crowded into the Condor, especially Stork, who toppled three people to get in first.

Grumbling, Scarlett looked up from the ground and glared at the Merb.

"You _could_ say excuse me! Or something!" she said, Finn helping her up. She stared into his eyes for a moment- ah, crystal blue…- and Finn gave her a strange look. She giggled slightly and ran inside.

"She's totally into you," Ashlyn said, nodding.

Stork clutched the controls again, content smile on his face. "My Condor…"

Aerrow and Radarr exchanged a worried glance.

"Guys! I _really_ think this is a bad idea-" Tigger started when the carrier took off and blasted into the atmosphere, the momentum throwing her into a wall.

"Sorry, Tigger!"

The girl sighed. They were so doomed.

Rondana wandered through some of the corridors. She hadn't been here in awhile- the last time, it had only been for a day, and that was right after she'd nearly destroyed the Terra- and noticed things had changed (as if it wasn't already obvious). It was darker in here, not just because of the rain outside.

Everything looked so much more… _used_, if that made any sense. The Condor was pretty wrecked- they must have used it a lot. Or it might have been perfectly fine, and it was the crash that made it look so banged up- that was probably it- either way.

Either way, it was definitely more depressing. Was it because Cyclonia winning was ruining the Storm Hawks' spirits?

Nah, that's an emo thought, she figured, when she heard footsteps behind her.

"Never been in a carrier before," Ralph said, and shrugged. "This place is neat."

Rondana didn't say anything for a moment, and Ralph added- "You're thinking emo thoughts, aren't you?"

She laughed. "You really know how to see through people, huh?"

"Well, not really… it's just you were looking around and walking slowly and pondering like some philosopher…" Ralph shrugged. "It gets obvious."

"It's not obvious… you're just good at that." The girl reasoned, and Ralph rolled his eyes.

"Whatever. What emo thoughts were you thinking about?"

"How Cyclonia's going to win and we're all screwed," Rondana said, leaning against the wall.

"You know, if Stork wasn't so scared of you, you'd probably be good friends with him."

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"You know, I don't have to _wait_ to throw you into the Wastelands!" Selena shrieked angrily. Ashelle increased the speed; she wanted to get to Cyclonia much faster then this.

Cyclonia?

"Hey, we're doing a detour." The queen decided. "I need to check something with Cyclonis about the plans,"

"Wait, what plans? When did you make 'plans' with Cyclonis?" Arcello asked, alarmed, before Mason hit him over the head, effectively knocking the boy out.

"It's a long story. Selena knows." Ashelle added, vaguely. Mason shot his sister a look- _how come you know and I don't?_

The rain picked up.

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"Hey, we'll probably be fine," Aladd said- oddly cheerfully- to Tigger when suddenly there was a strange sound from the engine.

"We're doomed," the mechanic and the carrier pilot said simultaneously.

"Okay, now I'm worried about both of them," Aerrow said to Radarr, who nodded in agreement.

"It's nothing, we'll… probably be able to make it without major casualties…" Piper started, and then trailed off.

"It's the rain; the Condor can't handle this kind of weather yet, especially not without a way to clear the windows. We can't see anything!" Junko contributed, drinking from a jug of… something unrecognizable…

"We can take a detour through Terra Saharr," Piper said and shrugged, "It NEVER rains there. And maybe past Terra Saharr the weather is better. We don't really have a choice," she added, and everyone sighed.

"To Terra Saharr, then."

"Oh great, another detour…" Stork muttered sarcastically.

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The airship blent in well with Terra Cyclonia, to Ashelles surprise.

"Well, we're here." Kellesey said dryly. The rain in this part of Atmos was subsiding as the carrier landed.

"Should we just leave him here?" Mason asked, motioning to Arcello, unconscious on the ground.

Ashelle shrugged. "Whatever. Selena, come with me. Kellesey and Mason, do something worthwhile. This won't take long."

Mason chugged from a Pepsi can.

Meanwhile, the other two girls wandered into the palace. "Wow, this place is even bigger then your palace," Selena laughed. Ashelle shot her a death glare and the girl shut up.

"Where is she…?" Ashelle muttered, looking around.

"Maybe in here?" Selena suggested, standing right next to the door of the throne room.

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"Gghh…" the world moved into focus, and Arcello looked up groggily.

"Damn, he's awake." A voice complained- he recognized it to be Masons. It was better to be unconscious then. Arcello fell back to the floor, pretending to be out of it.

"Aww, c'mon, you coward. You're so scared that you're not even going to be _conscious?_ Ashelle and Selena aren't even here." Mason added as Kellesey frantically hurried to finish the forms they had neglected a week ago.

Arcello looked up hopefully.

"They're not?"

Mason laughed. "Nah, went off to Cyclonia to do something."

The blonde stood up, relieved that this wasn't a trick. "So… wanna have some… training or something?" he asked, hoping on some slim chance Mason would have mercy on him and not kill him trying to train.

Instead, he threw the now-empty Pepsi can at him.

"Somehow, I think that if we try to practice, this airship's gonna be more screwed then the Condor."

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"Master Cyclonis?"

The chamber echoed her call, and Master Cyclonis looked up, not even leaving the seat of her throne to see the two girls at the doorway.

"So you've come early, I see." She said. Ashelle noticed her palace was even darker then usual; some of the hallways she had gone through earlier almost pitch black. But the throne room was showered in grey; cloudy light from outside, and it gave it an almost hopeful look compared to the rest of the building.

"The arrangements. The rogues."

"The Storm Hawks?"

Cyclonis nodded. "Dark Ace told me they were on your Terra. Are they still?" she asked. "Could you detain them?"

"Well, we tried." Selena muttered. Cyclonis glared and stood up.

"What do you mean, you _tried_?" she asked coolly, cocking an eyebrow. Ashelle gave Selena a look. _Don't say anything!_

"We did. We detained them, several Rock Hearts and a bunch of other people. Something exploded and they got away. But they think we're in Atmosia now, and I think they went after us on the Condor. They're probably heading toward Terra Atmosia right now. You can catch them there." Ashelle directed calmly, for once. "The deals still on them?"

"Not unless _you_ get them- remember?" The Master rolled her eyes. "You said they were on Pathos. So I figured if you captured them, brought them over here, I'd spare your Terra. I don't have to, you know."

"I've said before," Ashelle added, "Pathologica's very dangerous to invade, the-"

"Disease. Unfortunately for you, Cyclonia isn't warped into medieval times, and we have medicine." Lark argued. For once, Ashelle felt small, powerless, and she hated it. The comment stung, because it really did suck, leading one of the most screwed up places in Atmos and having to pay for it.

"You couldn't. There's a bunch of Terra's nearby, as well- they're all united, and you've never succeeded with any of them before…" the Pathologican queen began again, when Cyclonis shook her head, with a wry smile.

"Not quite. Terra Saharrs never liked you, and Krysita doesn't have much… incentive to help you." The Master lowered her cloak slightly. "You've basically got one chance here. Bring the rogues to me, or Pathologica… or it's as good as mine." The girl snickered in a very sinister, evil way.

_Never trust a Cyclonian!_

"Terra Saharr. We could start there." Cyclonis laughed, and Ashelle was sickened. Despite how much the two girls had in common, Cyclonis still wanted to take over her Terra.

This was so typical.

"I'll get them." Ashelle decided. Selena was already walking away.

"And I'll start at Terra Saharr," Cyclonis whispered, low enough for none of them to hear.

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"You know what's weird, I just realized." Ralph said, wandering around the hallway.

"What?" Rondana asked the same four-letter word that maybe several billion people in history had used thousands and thousands of times before. Somehow, that struck her, and she mentally kicked herself for not saying something more clever, even though that was a very strange reason to mentally kick yourself.

"That, technically, _you_ should be the queen of Pathos." He remarked.

"…what do you mean?" Another generic question. Of course, she _should_ have been, but Ashelle got in the way. "I was already supposed to be… but Ashelle…"

"No, not like that. About the reincarnate thing." Ralph said. "Think about it. By being a reincarnate, it probably makes it highly unlikely for you to get sick- or you get sick differently or something- _and_ you're in Esstuberculosis' Clan. So it would most benefit you if you actually served your goddess, and by promoting disease on Pathos, it still wouldn't hurt you."

He was starting to sound like a textbook again…

"…but then again, Ashelle, who's more closely aligned with Essebola and who can get ill because she's not a reincarnate, is fighting for something that could kill her in the end." The brunette added. "Well, uh, it probably doesn't make any sense, I just figured…"

"No, I get it." Rondana nodded. "But it _is_ weird… and there's no way I'm going back to the throne anyway… not with that squadron…"

"Yeah- don't you just _love_ her squadron?" the boy said sarcastically. "Such pleasant people..."

Rondana laughed. "Yeah, right before they bite your head off…"

"Well said, Dana."

"Ooh, Dana!"

The two jumped as a familiar green-haired man ran towards them- with sake, which really shouldn't have been surprising by now. "You gave Rondana a nickname _already? _Ashlyn's right, you two _do_ like each other…"

"I met him a day ago!" Rondana argued. Atmos wasn't like a fairytale land where you're strangers one day and married the next. "Besides, when do nicknames mean you like someone?"

"I dunno. I'm not good at this stuff, but Ashlyn claims to be your new romance advisor or something…"

Ralph and Rondana exchanged a glance.

"WHAT?!"

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"Hey, there's no storm!"

Shadow looked up to see bright light fill the Condor. Piper grinned. _I knew it!_ Was written all over her face- well, not literally, you get the idea… aww, forget it…

"Well, Terra Saharr's nice." The dark haired girl commented, blue skies and a blazing sun visible from the front window.

"It'll do. For now." Stork muttered. "As soon as we get off here we'll probably run into the storm again. And then we'll be _doomed_."

"This is too much worrying," Aerrow muttered and Griffey chirped.

"Hey! Where'd Radarr go?"

Radarr, meanwhile, was in the kitchen feasting.

"Stork…" Ashlyn said carefully, "…are you sure you don't need any… help…?" she asked, putting a hand on his shoulder.

Stork jumped back about ten feet. "ACK! You're probably covered in Pathologican germs!" he gasped. "Oh no, I don't have enough antidotes for all the possibilities of illnesses I could have possibly been infected with…"

Shadow and Aerrow exchanged a glance as Stork fretted, looking from side to side and twitching. Ashlyn huffed and walked off dramatically.

"Happy place," Shadow muttered and grabbed the helmet from a shelf- helmet miraculously undamaged from the previous crash- and put it on his head. Stork slouched down, and smiled contently (which must have scared several people).

"Alright, Tigger, you're driving,"

Tigger grinned and ran up to the controls and Finn stared. "You can't let a Rock Heart drive the Condor! It's… it's…"

"It's _normal. _She _fixed_ your airship, remember?" Kai said, and Finn grumbled.

"Uh, guys?" Aladd asked, looking through the glass to the Terra below. "We have a problem…"

"What?" Scarlett put down a random magazine she had been reading and suddenly saw it.

Several hundred talons kicking up a massive sandstorm headed straight for the Condor.


	16. The Mothers Plight

**Chapter 16**

Shadow groaned.

"Okay, this is just ridiculous. So we're flying all over the Atmos to stop _one person_ from becoming a Sky Knight, which means we had to get arrested on the most diseased Terra in the world and that means that, of course, the COCKROACH is the best help we can afford, but _no_, everything blows up anyway because Finn crashed the Condor! And that means the airship is a wreck, and we're still trying to fight a bunch of royal brats but apparently they're _immortal_, or something, so of course we can't fight them but we do anyway, Stork's gonna have a heart attack and now we're chasing people straight to Terra Atmosia where a bunch of old geezers will be waiting to arrest us or something- is that it? Well, you know what, I don't care! I'm freaking hungry, and I don't know about _you_, but _I'm_ going to the kitchen,"

The trainee then walked off suddenly, leaving the group of people mildly surprised at her monologue.

"Well that was odd," someone muttered.

Stork, now awake, was beginning to hyperventilate again. "This airship can't take much more! _One blast_ of enemy fire could bring it down!" he gasped.

Suddenly the carrier was hit by a blast of enemy fire.

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"Mommy, look! A shooting star!" a small child yelled, pulling on a womans cloak as he pointed into the midday sky. Obscured from view from a talon-induced sandstorm was no shooting star, it looked like an airship, falling from the lower atmosphere.

The womans eyes widened.

"Honey, that's not a-"

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_CREEK!_

One would expect an airship to crash with a _boom, _not a_ creek,_ but either way, the Condor "emergency landed". It was the metal that creaked. It twisted out of shape on impact.

There was a strange whimpering sound, and "My Condor…"

She couldn't see anything, but she could hear and feel things. This was strange. She could sense sand underneath her, but she also felt metal, steel, possibly, whatever they uses in carriers surrounding her, compressing- she couldn't move the lower half of her body. A minute ago she had seen the shooting star, and now she had good reason to believe she was _under_ it. Did that mean no one would find her?

And she heard voices.

"I _told_ you this airship wasn't fit to travel! _67 percent; _remember that!"

"Tigger, shut up…"

"So, are we all alive?"

"Barely…" someone added.

She propped herself up on her elbows and pulled back, trying to slide out from under the debris. Her right leg pulled quickly up, but a shock of sharp pain went through her left. It felt wet and sticky. _Blood. Great, _she thought, _I've been impaled on something. _She winced, impalement hurt a lot more then it seemed.

Her son, she realized, he was somewhere here too. Maybe not under the airship, but in the area. And he was completely alone, maybe injured.

A wave of panic spread through her veins, panic for her son, and it moved like blood, as if panic was also pouring out her leg. Panic was cold, and it spread quickly- she could feel it at her ankles already, and she'd been impaled at the thigh. Oh, atmos, and now she was thinking dramatic thoughts. People did that when they died, y'know.

"_Why_ did I agree to this mission again?" an older, male voice said. None of the others knew, but Chaze Ri Kai had a lot more on his mind then a Pathologican Sky Knight.

"Because you're a kind, giving person who's willing to help a bunch of preteens out of this mess?" someone asked hopefully.

The woman winced again. She was afraid if she tried harder to free her leg it would be torn apart.

She didn't hear her son at all. More panic bled out. The more she worried, it seemed, the faster the blood poured, whether for reason or by chance. But she was a mother, she worried.

She felt like she couldn't breathe- she was losing blood too quickly.

She felt like an airship had landed on her…

Ha, ha. People died like this, you know.

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"Oh, we're so screwed now!" someone yelled. The voice echoed once, as if she was in a dream. "The Council's not going to wait, and then Ashelle will be a 'Knight which means she'll go power mad like 500 years ago-"

They were worried about the Council. They really didn't know she was down here.

"Ralph, how would you _know_ Ashelle went power mad 500 years ago?"

"I read,"

"Who _reads?_"

"Aladd, shut up!" another girl replied.

From the sound of it, they were all teenagers. The woman recognized a few of the names. Ashelle Queneture was queen of the nearby Terra Pathologica; Aladd Catseye was the Sky Knight of Terra Aladates. But where was _she_? In a dream? Or was she hearing this as a ghost, as if she had already died?

"Atmos, there's a person down here! _I found a civilian!_" a teenager girl gasped, and suddenly she heard footsteps. Someone had actually found her, but it was probably too late.

Something made her open her eyes to see an Amazonian girl with golden irises looking down, panicked expression on her face, looking at _her._

Those golden irises were the last thing she saw before she passed out.

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"D-did we really kill s-someone…?" Tigger asked shakily. They had managed to get this woman out of the wreck, and Stork and Rondana were trying to help her in the infirmary. Sky Knights were now the least of their concern.

Aladd sighed. "People always die," he said, "At least it wasn't one of us," His eyes, however, proved he was worried too. Aladd had gotten into a lot of sticky situations before (to say the least) but he had never actually killed someone.

"You mean we did k-kill her?" the strawberry blonde asked, eyes wide with fear. He could see through her glasses the girl was on the verge of crying.

"She might still have a chance…" Scarlett said hopefully. There was the pattering of little feet, and suddenly a small child ran in from the open ramp, the metal slightly mangled and bent because the ramp had burst open on impact.

The child brushed dark bangs out of his eyes. "Airship people… you're a squadron, right?"

He didn't look too young. Maybe eight.

"Well, two squadrons and a bunch of other people," Ralph said.

"Your ship fell and then mommy went missing…" the other boy trailed off.

"Mommy…?" Lee asked, confused, when suddenly he remembered the woman at the infirmary, and the fact that she looked so much like this child. The one they had found in the wreck. His eyes widened. If she was dead…

"She's alive," Stork said morbidly, walking out of the other room with ominous surgical gloves on. What was relieving to know was that they were bloodless. "But unconscious,"

"You mean mommy?!" the child gasped.

Stork didn't say anything. The kid ran into the other room, where Rondana was trying to clean up, or at least make it look decent. The room itself had survived, but it had taken awhile to make sure the cot wouldn't collapse with a person on it, and sorts of equipment had fallen to the floor and broke, what few medicines they had spilled out on the ground. She was worried if someone else got injured that their supplies might be too damaged to help them.

She smiled as he walked in. "Your mom should be fine," she said soothingly, like a doctor would, having heard the conversation outside. The boy grinned and walked up to the cot as the Pathologican checked the bandages one more time.

"Well, at least this day can't get any worse!" Finn said, leaning against a wall of debris that hadn't existed awhile ago. Fate hated the Condor, apparently.

Again, it began pouring rain outside.

"Finn, I advise that you never speak again," Lee said, groaning.

CCCCCC

Over the sky of Terra Saharr there was a flash of signal light. It wasn't a bright, reflecting beam- like Batman, like Batman, as if anyone in Atmos had seen Batman- but more like a flash, brightly lit enough to blind someone, at least temporarily.

It was because Luthor and Johnny Barrs had a plan, and it didn't involve pranks, explosives, sake or uranium. It involved one of Finns CDs and Pipers Solar crystal.

"Why can't we just flash the crystal into the sky? Why do we need to _reflect_ the darned rock?" Johnny asked impatiently.

"'Cause everyone flashes Solar crystals into the sky, sky," his older brother explained, lighting the crystal again over the CD. "They get mistaken for the suns rays and nobody even sees them, them- CD has a different flash, so they see it, it…"

"But we don't need a rescue," Johnny said, looking at the album cover of Finns CD as green hair fell into his eyes. "Hey, this is a Screaming Doom of Death CD! …that sharpshooter actually has good taste…"

Luthor decided there was nothing that could respond to that, and only added, "Yeah, we _do_ need someone to get us off this Terra, Terra. Because the Condor's so messed up, up,"

He reflected the crystal again and looked at Johnny. He was digging his still-bare feet into the sand as he read the back of the cover.

"…and now we wait, wait,"

CCCCCC

They found it hilarious when tourists showed up to hike Terra Saharr, when they asked for routes and trails through the desert, all loaded with camping supplies and canteens, obviously not enough water to last for their trip. Their only previous experience usually being a few mile run on Gale, or climbing up a large hill on Atmosia.

The nomads loved seeing the expressions on their naïve faces when they had to explain there were _no_ trails; and that if they wanted to go still they'd have to navigate themselves. A lot of idiots went anyway. Foreigners soon realized, however, that Terra Saharr was not laser leveled for perfect comfort. There was nothing out in the desert, but the tourists went there anyway.

The thing about the desert was that it was exactly the same everywhere. Besides getting lost, however, it was also really easy to see people in the desert… from above, with a skimmer or heliblade. Because the nomads didn't have these, they took it upon themselves to go tourist rescuing every once and awhile. Because when every foreigner went into the expanse, the nomads _always _gave them part of a mirror and a Solar crystal- "just in case".

They were, really, the unofficial hiker rescue squad. And they had yet to see the day where someone went out into that desert and came back without help.

So it was no surprise that there was a signal flash going off in the middle of the afternoon. The leader raised his arm to motion to the others; _we've got a stray tourist again._

The camels. Great, now they needed to rouse the camels. And those camels weren't happy when the men had to get them up in the middle of drinking break. Sure, they didn't really need that much water, but it was a time they could relax.

The camels weren't pleased, and put up a fight, but somehow about two minutes later a group of them were rounded up and the unofficial rescue squad was ready, and took off.

It was no secret some of Terra Saharrs camels were the fastest on the Atmos. That was good also for unfortunate tourists. The Saharrans weren't really sure why their camels were so fast, but, as the animals kicked up a cloud of sand behind them, frankly, they didn't care.

"Hey! Someone's coming!" Johnny said. Luthor smacked his forehead upon seeing their mode of travel.

"_Camels_ aren't going to get us to Atmosia, sia," he muttered, tossing the CD into the sand where it promptly cracked. "I bet the other skimmers in the hanger are utterly wrecked, wrecked."

"You cracked my CD!" Johnny gasped obliviously. The nomads caught up and eyed the Condor suspiciously.

"You flashed a signal even though you have an _airship?_" one man demanded in mispronounced Atmosian and slid off his desert animal.

"Well, as you can see, this airship is in no state to fly," Johnny said, not even looking at them as he frantically brushed sand off the CD.

"These camels will not carry you over the Wastelands," one man said, shaking his head.

"No, no! We were wondering if you had skimmers, mers," Luthor began, "Because ours are probably destroyed and we need to be at Atmosia, sia,"

Two of the nomads in the back looked at each other. "Are we supposed to repeat everything we say in Atmosian?" one asked the other in the native language of the desert, confused by Luthor's possibly abnormal speech patterns.

"Hmm. I guess so."

"Sir, sir, we have no skimmers, skimmers," one offered. Luthor raised an eyebrow.

"Are you mocking me, me?"

"Uh, no, no, sir, sir, uh…"

Johnny looked confused and the man who had gotten off the camel earlier smacked his forehead.

"Stop doing that, that!"

"What, what?"

CCCCCC

Were you supposed to feel dizzy when you just woke up?

It was because the world was shifting around her (because she was certain she was not shifting around the world). It blurred twice before coming into focus. Her son appeared above her.

"Yay! You're okay!" his youthful face broke into a cheerful smile.

"Thank the Atmos. We were so scared you were dead," an unfamiliar voice said with a relieving tone. There was a clicking sound, and she looked up.

"Who… who are you?" she asked, straining to sit up to see a young girl fixing something on a metal shelf nearby.

"My name's Rondana. I think our airship crash-landed on you, but for the incident you're not too banged up." the girl wandered forward to stand next to the son.

"What do you mean, not too banged up? I can't feel my leg, and I have a feeling it bled to death or something," the woman complained. She normally wouldn't have, except for that she was in an airship full of strangers and she really didn't want to have her leg amputated. It was too painful to sit up well enough to see if the limb was still there.

"Exactly, _for the incident,_" Rondana explained, "Having an airship land on you is normally fatal."

"Oh… well, uh, I'm Ryisa, and this is Akakios," the woman on the cot said, trying to start a decent conversation in Atmosian, a language she knew well.

"Well, nice to formally meet you, Ryisa, and you too, Akakios," Rondana said. "Uh… sorry about the airship nearly killing you, though…"

"Ran out of fuel?" Ryisa guessed, propping herself up on a bandaged elbow.

"Not exactly…" the other girl trailed off. Wait, where _had_ the previously-attacking talons gone? Had they fled? Or were they planning to attack again?

"Ah," Ryisa decided not to probe. "What carrier is- or was- this again?"

"The Condor. Kind of," Rondana wasn't sure if, in its current state, the Condor was considered a carrier anymore.

"That sounds familiar…"

Ryisa trailed off. Wasn't the Condor on some sort of 'wanted' vehicle listing she had seen in the bazaar awhile back? The one that was captained by the Storm Hawks? Who, according to the sheet, were criminals?

Ryisas eyes widened. "You're a Storm Hawk, aren't you?" she demanded, jumping back so that the cot bounced and Akakios grabbed it so the flimsy thing wouldn't break. "You're wanted in every Cyclonian territory- you know that?"

"I'm not a Storm Hawk," Rondana explained. "Look, if what you're thinking about is Cyclonia putting you on a criminal record just for being on the Condor-"

"I was nearly killed by _criminals!_" Ryisa gasped, cutting her off as the full implications of her accident hit her. "All of you- criminals-!"

"Ryisa…"

The younger girl walked up to her, who shook her head.

"I'm not getting arrested. I'm _not_ getting captured by Cyclonia… not again…"

Akakios said nothing, and Rondana looked confused. "…again?"

How odd it was, that her mind latched on that word- 'again'- rather than the rest of Ryisas defiance. That was a reincarnate trait, of course- to pick up on the little things and forget the rest.

"You say that we're wanted, that you don't want to get arrested by Cyclonia… again?" Rondana repeated. Akakios, meanwhile, sat on the floor and played with a dust bunny, because he was taught not to pry into things, even if they concerned his mother.

Ryisa said nothing.

"The Cyclonians aren't on this Terra, anyway, so why worry about them taking you?" Rondana asked.

"Look outside."

Rondana turned to see the window, or whatever was left of it and what was outside.

The talons from earlier hadn't left. Their skimmers circled the blue sky like vultures, waiting to see if they could spot out any survivors from the Condor crash.

"They're going to take over?!" Rondana gasped. Ryisa sighed.

"Yes- of course they are. That's why I have to go. You may not realize, but having been in Cyclonia before, I _know_ they'll do anything to get at you guys." The woman now seemed rushed, afraid.

Trying desperately to ignore her pain, she stood up and was relieved to find her leg still supporting her weight, apparently not broken as all that had been impaled was flesh. Ryisa gritted her teeth and pulled her son out of the infirmary and across the bridge to the ramp- she did _not_ want to go to Cyclonia for being involved with the Storm Hawks in her current state.

But Rondana quickly followed.

"Your wounds-"

"Yeah! She's alive!"

The voice of a particular sharpshooter cut everyone off, and suddenly the room was silent.

"What? Was it something I said?" the blonde asked obliviously.

"I'm going," she said firmly. Ryisa walked out smoothly, as if her injuries didn't really hurt.

Scarlet caught on. "Wait, no, don't leave-" she began, but the mother didn't slow. "Well, ah, since Stork and Rondana saved your life… you owe us a life debt!" she tried hastily, seeing the reincarnate needed Ryisa to stay for whatever reason.

She froze.

"I owe you a _what…_?"

"Well, she doesn't actually owe us a life debt, 'cause we nearly killed her in the first pl-" Finn began before Scarlett elbowed him in the ribs, effectively quieting the sharpshooter.

"What he said," Ryisa added and started off again.

"But, you do realize, that if the Cyclonians see you walking out of the Condor they'll know you were with us and arrest you anyway?" Ralph pointed out, logical person that he was. "Your best bet would be to try and hide it out here or something."

The woman stopped again, not because she had heard Ralphs remark but that her body was screaming out in suppressed pain again, that would have prevented her from going anyway. She shouldn't be fleeing with bandages almost all over her body. She couldn't ignore that, whether or not she could stand it, having been tortured by your neighborhood dictatorship before.

There was a high-pitched shrieking sound and footsteps.

"Talons," Aerrow muttered under his breath, energy blades already unsheathed and lit.

"Do we _have _to fight?" Ashlyn asked uneasily, "There's probably a ton of talons and dying isn't pleasant…"

"I don't think we have a choice. But talons aren't great fighters, anyway." Aerrow said, but the dark tone in his voice made it clear this could be a problem.

"Regardless, the quadrant is going to get taken over." Ralph added, leaning against a wall in the same casual way he did when he delivered bad news. "If we stop these talons we won't have time to stop Ashelle from becoming a Sky Knight and then she'll use charisma or something to let the Council allow her to take over, like last time, and if we manage to escape now and stop her these Cyclonians will take over Saharr and the other Terras around here," he added bluntly.

Finn hit his head against the wall. "Great- now all we need is Master Cyclonis _herself_ to strut in!"

Suddenly a hooded figure appeared in the doorway. Lee's eyes widened.

"Finn, what did I tell you about speaking?!"

There was a dark, hissing noise, and the Master came into the light. Oh, Atmos, it was really her- wait, how the heck did she-?

"Oh, shit, we're gonna die!" Shadow yelled, back from the kitchen after seeing it was emptied by Radarr and Griffey already.

Tigger dove behind Aladd, and Scarlett glared at Finn for his new apparent curse: The ability to make things happen by only speaking.

Those who had weapons had them ready, and Aerrow rushed up to her wh-

A bright flash lit up the bridge, and the group stepped back. When it dimmed they could see an older teenager boy laughing like crazy.

"Yeah, Master Cyclonis _really _appears on Terra Saharr at random! I can't believe you fell for that!"

Lee's eye twitched, and Aerrow looked at Kai in a state of disbelief. He was so used to just fighting he hadn't realized the improbability. Of course, everything in his life had been extremely improbably already, so it was probably just natural.

But Ryisa stepped back, and started howling with laughter.

Suddenly the room quieted and Akakios looked up as his mom snickered. "Did we break her?" he asked finally.

"Oh, that's good…!" the woman said, calming down, "You squadron people are _so_ paranoid."

Stork's eye twitched.

---

I have a feeling that chappie was really confusing, sorry D: ... Silly Missy and her retarded plots. I hope the story overall isn't that confusing though.

Yah, I know, two months since last update. That, my friends, would be the joy called NaNoWriMo! (and yes, I know, I didn't even do my own challenge for NaNo on the OC Forum). See, about a week into November I decided to do the actual NaNo anyway. Much funfun. My story, however, about died at 38 thousand words, but it was the longest thing I've written thus far, so I'm mildly proud. :D For those who want to try JanNoWriMo, which is the same thing but in January, here's the link.

.com/janno/

Veering off topic. Anyway, there it is. :D


	17. Only Seconds

**Chapter Seventeen: Only Seconds**

"You know, if the Condor could talk, it _wouldn't, _because it'd be DEAD." Tigger complained, wrench in hand as she tried to make the airship at least no longer radioactive. (how a wrench would help do this, no one knew)

Yes, RADIOACTIVE. Because _someone_ had been illegally running uranium crystal experiments in Pipers lab without her- or the Organization for Explosive Materials' (OEMs) permission. Said person threw a bottle of sake at the window, bored. The glass shattered, and Tigger had only fixed it five minutes ago.

"Lee!" the girl scolded. "We'll never be able to fly this thing if you keep breaking windows, because they when we fly it'll let in air pressure which will _KILL US-_"

"You've been working on this thing for hours," the man said, rolling his eyes. "And you said yourself it was dead-"

"_THE CONDOR IS __**NOT**__ DEAD!_"

A particular Merb clung to the wall. "She'll come back to life! She'll…"

Stork trailed off when he realized he was attracting odd looks, especially from Ryisa.

Rondana, on the other side of the room, sighed. "The paranoid are more likely to go insane," she said simply, though she was hoping Stork was really just suffering stress, because an insane Merb was the _last _thing they needed right now.

Insincere as it sounded, however, she wasn't really worried about Stork. The pilot would be fine, he always was. He just lost it sometimes- and probably more then often on this mission, considering his worries right now were probably which disease he contracted on Pathologica that was most likely to kill him.

Rondana was worried about the mission itself. She had no idea if Ashelle had even made a squadron yet, if they were already too late. It wasn't like Ashelle had walked in slow-motion to the Council building, and if she did already have government immunity then she'd have backup invading the quadrant.

And there was no doubt she'd invade the quadrant.

Ashelle was one of those 'revive the ancient Pathosian dynasty' people, though she'd never shown it publicly. The only thing worse than a Cyclonian Empire was a Pathologican Empire- instead of talons killing you, you wouldn't even _see_ what's killing you.

"We're doomed," the girl murmured. She heard a laugh.

"I told you, just like Stork," Ralph said. Rondana rolled her eyes.

"_I'm _not in love with an airship,"

The two turned to look at Stork, who was now slightly calmer and was helping Tigger attempt repairs again. Ralph shrugged. "I don't know how he survived the mission so far. Disease, doom and his precious Condor crashing _twice…_"

"Heh, yeah…" Rondana trailed off awkwardly and there was a sudden dead silence.

"Aww! Awkward relationship!"

Ralph jumped when a familiar brunette popped from seemingly out of nowhere behind him. "Gah! Will you quit doing that?!"

Ashlyn snickered.

"What, having a cutesy moment with Rondana or something?" She laughed again. Ralph glared at her.

"Stop stalking me! I don't even know your name!"

"It's Ashlyn," the girl said, calmer now. "So? _Were _you?"

"Was I what?" the boy asked obliviously.

"Having a cutesy awkward moment with Rondana!" Ashlyn grinned. Those two were _so _fun to mess with…

"You're dead, Ashlyn," the ex-queen of Pathologica said darkly.

"You were, weren't you!"

"Actually, not really-" Ralph began before he was cut off. As if on cue, the brunette grabbed both of their arms and pulled then together for a 'kiss'.

Then she pulled out a kodak crystal and took a shot of the 'couple'.

Yes, Ashlyn had been planning this.

"Aha!"

Rondana pulled back almost instantly, at the least, surprised. "Ashlyn! You-!"

The other girl was already running away, yelling something that sounded like "Shadow, you owe me twenty bucks!"

Ralph was still standing next to her. The boy blinked.

"That was… kind of… uh…"

Rondana didn't say anything, her cheeks so flushed you'd think it was because of some disease that she could have contracted back home, whatever disease caused ones cheeks to turn red, anyway.

She looked at Ralph. Her conscience, meanwhile, was yelling at her.

_You just kissed a boy! You idiot, think of something clever!_

"Uh… bye!"

Rondana sprinted off, having no idea what to do. And she had to kill Ashlyn right now, anyway. Stupid bet. Stupid twenty dollars.

"Okay…?" Ralph nodded slowly, wondering if Shadow even_ had_ twenty dollars for whatever bet Ashlyn had been a part of.

_You just kissed a girl! You idiot, think of something clever!_

Wait, Rondana had already run away…

"She digs you," Finn said, appearing behind him just as suddenly as Ashlyn had.

"Gack! How does everyone keep doing that?!"

"I dunno dude, but one day some talon is gonna sneak up on you and kick your butt," the blonde said, nodding. Ralph rolled his eyes.

Finn tossed one of Lee's uranium crystals into the air. "Y'know, you really don't talk much…"

Ralph didn't say anything.

"See! You didn't even respond to _that,_" the sharpshooter continued. "Dude, you're so boring," he added and walked off.

The brunette snickered.

Meanwhile, Ashlyn dove into a spare room and slammed the door so Rondana wouldn't find her and kill her. "Shadow! I won, in your _face…_"

"Won what?"

Kai looked up, crystal in hand.

"Oh! Shadow's not in here! Kay, totally, bye!" The girl ran off and the door slammed again. Kai could have sworn he'd heard yelling in the hall outside.

"I can't believe I got involved with this mission…" he muttered, collecting loose uranium crystals. The teen wandered out into the hall a few minutes later. Whoever had been yelling earlier had left.

He picked up another glowing green crystal off the floor. If the OEM _ever_ found out about this…

_Poor Stork, _Kai thought, _Tigger's right, his Condor really is dead._

He knew there was no way this carrier would be able to fly to the Council now. Of course, it was likely Ashelle had already become a Sky Knight. Which meant that this mission was failed anyway, especially if what Ralph had said about her wanting to take over the quadrant was true.

Not paying attention, the teen almost tripped over another uranium crystal.

"Where did Lee _get_ all of these?" he asked himself, picking that one up as well. "It's almost like a trail…"

Out of boredom, he decided to follow said trail.

It turned another corner and then abruptly ended with Lee throwing uranium at a wall. The uranium bounced back and the short man caught it in his hand and threw it again. Kai's eye twitched.

"_This _is what you've been doing with the OEM's uranium?! Don't you know these things can explode on contact?! If it did the blast would kill us all! And if _anyone_ survived, the uranium would strike them off!"

Lee looked up, fascinated.

"Really? Cool!"

Kai facepalmed. "And you left these all over the floor," he added, dropping the collected crystals onto the ground. For a split second he feared they'd explode on contact with the metal (wouldn't that be ironic?) and held his breath. Fortunately- or unfortunately for entertainment- nothing blew up.

Lee rolled his eyes. "I found a huge stash of them in Pipers room,"

_Never thought Piper was one for explosives… did she even know what those crystals were? Well, she probably did, crystal specialist and all… why did she have them? _Kai wondered, he'd have to ask the bluenette later.

"I'm bored," Lee said, disinterested. Kai sighed.

"If that blows up, I'm going to kill you,"

Lee laughed. "But I'll already be dead!" he cackled as the teen rolled his eyes and walked off.

"Dead, dead, dead…" Kai could hear Tigger taunting Stork as he walked back to the ridge. Rondana was leaning against a wall.

"_Why _is it that ever large mission we try to have with a bunch of random people always gets out of hand?" she asked herself. "And I can't find Ashlyn, ugh…"

"Hey, if it makes you feel better, this mission's probably failed anyway," Kai said in mock cheerfulness.

"Whoa whoa whoa!"

The two were startled as Ryisa walked up to them. "I almost _died_ for your mission, and now you're _giving up _on it?"

"Well, we're not really giving up, we're-" Rondana defended, but the mother cut her off.

"No, I know what you're saying, you're giving up. I have a son, I know these things. You have to _fight for it _before you can _fail_." She nodded, then paused. "That sounds a bit confusing, that's not confusing, is it?"

"Well, no, but-"

"No, don't you dare go self-pitying emo on me!" Ryisa added firmly. Rondana raised an eyebrow.

"Emo-?"

"Yeah, that's right, _emo_. And you said mothers don't know terms!" she glared at Finn, standing next to her son. Akakios merely looked concerned.

"So we're going to Atmosia then?" Kai asked, looking around. "There better be enough undamaged skimmers, because this ship is _not_ flying unless you want to risk a trip to the Wastelands,"

"Yeah, to Atmosia or wherever you're supposed to be going…" Ryisa trailed off. "Wait, Atmosia? Can I come?" she asked eagerly, suddenly more gleeful.

"Uh… I dunno… sure, I guess…?"

"Okay," Rondana said, counting something on her fingers and trying to avoid the fact that Ralph was in the same room, "So there are five skimmers, four if Stork doesn't let us use the Storkmobile…"

Stork suddenly looked up, having heard his name but not what was mentioned about him, thanks to a cackling mechanic going "Dead dead dead _dead_…"

"…but only if they're all at least _functional, _and if they are we can have two people per skimmer, so that's eight if we can't have Stork's and ten if we can unless we have more buff people coming and then it's one per skimmer-"

"Rondana, shut up," Aladd said. "So, who's coming?"

"Well, I'm coming. And I guess Akakios is too, y'know, the Council would make a _great_ field trip for him…"

Shadow and Piper, apparently nearby, exchanged a glance.

"I'm not sure you should bring a young child to the Council… this is a _mission_, there might be fighting. And you're still technically injured, so-"

Ryisa gave them a blank stare. "I'm fine. And Akakios' seen politicians yelling with each other before,"

"I mean _dangerous_, physical fighting, injuries, killing, blood, violence, gore-"

Piper elbowed the trainee in the ribs. "Don't you have a griffin to annoy?" she hissed.

"Fight the Council? Why would you fight the Council? They're the good guys!" Ryisa protested. The specialist whistled.

"Uh, well, it's kind of complicated, actually…" she began. Ryisa looked at Rondana.

"I thought we were going to Atmosia to _help_ the Council! I know you can't be Cyclonian, I mean, Storm Hawks being _Cyclonian?"_

"Well, I guess not, but you can't just say, 'I'm on this side' or vice versa, I mean, it's sort of a tricky situation…" Rondana trailed off, she wasn't good at explaining things.

"You can't fight both sides," Ryisa said, shaking her head. "I guess the Rock Hearts were always a bit shady, with a Catseye and all, but don't the Storm Hawks fight solely for the Council?"

"We're not all Storm Hawks," Rondana replied.

"And sometimes we have to fight the Council when they're making a mistake," Piper added.

"What's their mistake?" the woman asked.

"Uh, we _really_ don't have time…" Scarlett popped in and cast a worried glance at everyone, pointing to her wrist. "Am I the only one with a watch in here? If we're leaving, we're leaving _now_,"

"But if I'm coming, I'd like to know what's going on…" Ryisa trailed off.

"I'd really explain, but I- wait, you can't go, you're _injured,_" the Amazonian said with a raised eyebrow.

"You guys talk too much," Aladd muttered and left.

"Besides, you're not the only one staying, Tigger and a few others are repairing the ship and 4-10 people, depending on how many and how well the skimmers work and how buff the people coming are, 'cause buff people take up more room, as everybody-"

"Rondana. Skimmers." Scarlett rolled her eyes and sighed. Rondana always started talking strangely when odd things happened, and she had heard from Ashlyn that she had 'kissed' Ralph… kind of, anyway…

"If the Council is making a mistake that will affect the public, shouldn't I know-?"

"We'll tell you soon… ah… bye-!"

Rondana stuttered and ran off in the way she usually did, when she was trying to avoid something.

"Dude, you're really good at running away from things. It's _facing _them that's the problem with you," a male voice laughed dryly as she ran into the hanger.

"Whoa! When did you show up here?" Rondana startled when she saw Ralph standing next to a skimmer in said hanger.

The boy shrugged. "I dunno. Wanted to figure out how the Storkmobile works, so we can bring more people, but all I activated was the ejector seat," He motioned to the ceiling, where what appeared to be a skimmer seat was embedded in a crumbling ceiling.

"You know, you _always_ need an ejector seat,"

_Now's your chance to say something clever! Did you completely forget about the kiss? _Rondana's conscience yelled. _Oh, why do I even bother, you're an idiot…_

Her conscience was _so_ retarded…

"Ah, the ejector seat is debatable. You're talking about the same guy who diagnoses you with mindworms every time you want to go on a vacation,"

Rondana laughed. "Same old Stork,"

The door burst open and the girl was grateful for the interruption of new people. All of a sudden, things kept getting so annoyingly _awkward_ with her and Ralph. She was hit by a wave of jealousy to be in Tigger and Aladds position- they didn't ever seen to have a weird, silent or freaky moment.

…then again, their souls were connected or something. It would be really odd if Rondanas soul was connected to Ralph, though.

Wait, why was she thinking about that? She didn't _really_ like Ralph like… she just…

"Rondana? _He-_loh?"

The girl looked up abruptly to see Scarlett waving a hand in front of her face. "Pick a skimmer,"

The other girl quickly slid onto Finn's and the Pathologican noticed the only one not inhabited by two people already was the Storkmobile.

…which Ralph was sitting on.

_Brilliant._

The girl sat on the edge of said Storkmobile as others around her turned up the engines and took off over the dusty plains of Saharr.

"Stork would kill if he knew Pathologicans were riding this thing," Rondana said.

Ralph laughed and added, "Yeah,"

--

**OMA, I'm sorry! My romance is pitiful! *fail* I re-read this thing... I guess writers block takes its toll...**

**If anyone has romance concrit (or really, any- did you notice that in *every* large OC story I have, everything disintigrates near the end...?) that would be so helpful...**

**And another random note, this just exceeded Crystal Lights in wordcount, lawlz. Yep, MissD's the only person who keeps track of these things.**


	18. Old News

**Chapter 18**

**Chapter 18: Old News**

**Yooolllaa!**

**Didn't this chapter take forever to put up? Ah well. Anyway, since I realized I never bothered with disclaimers, I've got to post a bunch here, though I'm sure you all know that Shadow, Tigger, Aladd, Kai, Max, Lee, Luthor, Johnny, and Scarlett do not belong to me, instead they belong respectively to ShadowQueen25, Ms. J. Black, RGZ Archer, magus732, PinkPanther9.7 and LoveFlame. The entire concept of Storm Hawks belongs to Asaph Fipke.**

…**well, uh, since that was just the disclaimer, I guess I'm done here…**

**--**

"I'm do-_ne_! I'm do-_ne_!" Tigger cheered, doing a little happy dance around the Condor. Ashlyn was not amused by her chanting.

"Done with what?" the brunette asked, tinkering with crystals. Tigger looked up.

"Fixing all of the engine pipes,"

"That doesn't mean you're done fixing the ship, though," an older voice interrupted. Ryisa held a wrench with a decorative picture of Aladd on it. "Is this by any chance yours?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.

The strawberry blonde snatched it back.

"Where'd you find that?!" she demanded, shrinking back slightly.

"By the engine pipes- I hope you don't mind, I tweaked some of your work on the pipes with it. It didn't look secured properly."

"Tweaked…?" Tigger asked. "You think my work needs to be TWEAKED?"

Her eye twitched.

"As I said, I hope you don't mind. I'm pretty sure it's decent now," the woman added. Tiggers eyes widened.

"Wait, you're a MECHANIC?"

--

Because bad luck always seemed to stalk the group heading for Atmosia, not only was the rain continuing, it had gotten _worse_. It was snowingat their altitude.

"I hate this," Aladd said flatly, on a skimmer going parallel to Rondana and Ralphs. "We're putting up with a destroyed Condor, an insane Stork, and high altitude weather- _why_?"

"Because you're all very, very nice people," Rondana said sheepishly. Scarlett looked up.

"Well, look on the bright side! At least we're not being chased by talons!" the girl said with an unusual amount of pep.

"Gack! Talons!"

Ahead of them, Aerrow pointed in another direction, and they all saw a small Cyclonian fleet approaching.

"Why does this always happen?!"

"Up! Fly up!" Someone ordered, but through the wind, their voice couldn't be recognized.

"INTO the cloud? Are you crazy?"

"We'll all get lost!"

"But we don't have time to fight them!" another argued.

Shadow figured this person had to be one of her own squadron, because they had demanded a similar plan of action a few months ago- or, at least, that's what Piper had told her. They had gone into Terra Deep to avoid a Cyclonian battle airship.

Bu she remembered that adventure had _not_ turned out well.

"Why don't we just throw a crystal at them or something? Like an EXPLODING crystal?" she tried.

"Or a hailstone!"

Finn hurled a rather large piece of ice into the Cyclonians. It struck the wing of a switchblade like a meteor making contact with earth, and the machine started spiraling.

"…where'd you _get_ that?"

The blonde pointed up, towards the cloud. Shadow paled, knowing where the hailstone had come from.

_We were going to FLY in that thing?!_

Meanwhile, on Atmosia, the Sky Knight testing had gone rather smoothly, with no interruptions as Ashelle had feared. She found the entire thing simple, though being in Oblivion 500 years- think half a millennium of extra training time- had worked to her advantage. Mason and Selena, being alive for _thousands_ of years, had a similar effect.

Ashelle and Kellesey were a different story.

Both of them hadn't the asset of extra decades of practice to aid them. Not to mention both were under fifteen, and Kellesey was trying to test in a _frock._

"Why didn't you wear your uniform?" Ashelle demanded after the test. The dark-haired teenager wasn't in her dress, after all- instead of formal attire, she wore a form fitting, bloodred skysuit with high, slim boots and dull armor. Mason was the only other one in the squadron to wear a uniform, Selena went with her green dress and Arcello was just an embarrassment to Pathologica.

"'Cause you yanked us right out of the palace and I wasn't ready! We weren't supposed to take this for another two weeks!" the blonde said, panting as she tried to catch her breath. "Ashelle, of all your ideas, becoming a Sky Knight was your WORST."

"No, hiring you to be in this squadron was. After all, you _are_ only ten years old…"

"A ten year old that could kill you!"

Ashelle glared. "Don't test me, princess!"

"Shh!"

The Pathologican queen looked up to see Mason motioning angrily at her and pointing towards the Council booth. The old men were debating among themselves in loud whispers- she could make out 'too young' and 'freaks'.

"Too young?" she asked Mason in a harsh tone. "When we came here a few weeks ago, didn't they realize there was a loophole? Were they even listening?"

The teen shrugged.

"And they didn't even train in the Academy…" one of the governors said, but then looked frantic when he saw Ashelle shooting death glares at him.

"I'll show _you_ training…" she hissed, clutching her sword. Mason elbowed her.

"Don't attack them UNLESS they say no," he warned with a growl. The sound of weak footsteps filled the room.

"Please don't ever say 'Sky Knight' again," Arcello said limply, dragging himself towards the group.

"Sky Knight," Ashelle said dryly, preoccupied enough with the Councils decision to not see him as he groaned and stumbled to the floor. Kellesey snickered. Selena rolled her eyes, knowing her best friend was probably just as beaten as Arcello anyway.

Several Council members cleared their throats and looked up at the teenagers. One man on the side was straightening papers.

"Come forward, uh… ah…?"

"Ashelle," the dark haired girl said coolly and walked towards them. She tightened her grip on the handlebar of her weapon, not noticing Masons' glares as her friends followed.

"We have decided," one of the men began, not looking up at them from his paper. No one spoke.

"And _what_ was the decision?" Ashelle asked finally, arms crossed. Her tone was formal, but very forced- though none of the others could tell.

"No."

Kellesey and Arcellos sighs of relief were muffled by Ashelles startled cry.

"_WHAT-?!"_

Before anyone could kill each other, a large crash resounded in the hall and the wall behind them broke into pieces. Ashelle jumped and spun around, her sword now at the ready.

"_ALADD! YOU COULD HAVE USED THE DOOR!" _someone yelled.

_Them._

Selena whipped out her scythe and pointed it towards the new set of the people. "It's YOU again!" she gasped, even more vehement than Ashelle had been.

"Someone arrest them!" one of the governors demanded. No one did anything.

"Yes, it's us. I hope you haven't gotten too cozy with your new Sky Knight position," Rondana said, eyes narrowing.

"Is that a _Catseye?_" a Council member gasped and pointed. Aladd groaned.

"If _anyone _even- GACK!"

A group of security guards had swiftly attacked him, and were attempting to disarm the teen. Aladd was stronger, and put up a good fight, shaking the men off.

"Don't bother trying to disarm us, we're not here to hurt you," he said, still with his energy sword. One of the guards eyed the destroyed wall with a look of disbelief.

Aladd saw his expression.

"I said I wouldn't hurt YOU, I never mentioned the building," he clarified obliviously and they ran at him again.

"Hey!"

The man jumped back when he saw who was threatening him.

Kai.

Specifically, _the_ Kai that had been wanted by the entire free Atmos for the last several years, who had been behind plenty of accounts of illegal activity, leading attacks on Cyclonia, and one of the few people who was actually involved with the Interceptors, _before _the Nightmare of Mesa.

His eye twitched.

Yes, _that_ Kai.

"Actually, we're just here to make sure you don't have any _more _problems on your hands," he said, looking straight at Ashelle.

"Says the kid who's been stirring up trouble ever since that little incident on Mesa," she said sarcastically. Rondana resisted the urge to punch her.

A man sitting on the edge of the Council booth cleared his throat again.

"I think we've changed our decision," he said in a deep, powerful voice that contrasted his petit form.

"What decision?" Finn asked. Aerrow sighed.

"They're gonna say she's not a Sky Knight now or something. They must have just legalized her or something," he said, unaware of how false that was.

"Ashelle Queneture, you and your squadron- well, possibly excluding those two-" one of the governors pointed to Kellesey and Arcello, then continued. "You are legalized to become a squadron… as long as you get rid of _them_."

He pointed again, this time to the rogues lingering near the open wall. Rain was pouring in from the outside.

"Geez, maybe we should have gone in through the door," Aladd mused, not paying attention. "I hate getting wet…"

"Why, because of you and your ikle fear of water?" Finn laughed and Aladd socked him the jaw.

A clueless Ralph was the first to speak.

"Wait, she _is_ a Sky Knight now?"

Everyone elses jaws had dropped, on both sides. Well, except Aladds, and Finns was reeling in pain.

Rondana looked at Ashelle.

"They mean… that they had _denied _you Sky Knightship to start with? And the only reason you are now is 'cause…"

Suddenly the girl paused.

"Oh, shit," Shadow filled in.

Ashelle lost focus, thrown off by the announcement. Sky Knight? She mildly regretted thinking about killing those politicians earlier. The girl relaxed until she heard the second part of the demand.

_As long as you get rid of… them…_

She stiffened and grabbed her sword. Looking up, Ashelle Queneture only had one question.

"Dead or alive?"

--

Tigger was working on a pipe near the back of the Condor when she heard the noise.

It was a few minutes after learning Ryisa was a mechanic. Tigger had left because- and she didn't want to admit it- it bothered her that there was another serious mechanic, besides Junko, onboard. She knew it was better for the Condor, but the girl hadn't expected Ryisa to be of much help to start with, especially because they had to rescue her.

The noise was a whirring sound, almost like a helicopter, only it was a thousand whirring sounds, a thousand engines that could only mean one thing.

An army.

Specifically, the Cyclonian army.

"Uh…" the girl trailed off and looked up from her handiwork. Most of the main fighters in their little mission had gone off to Atmosia. She knew that the people remaining were still well-matched against talons in combat (or usually better, because as any squadron knows, talons are easy game) but she wasn't sure what to tell Stork.

And he had been right behind Tigger this whole time, helping with the pipes. His eye twitched when he heard the sound.

"They're back again," she said sheepishly, putting her wrench down.

"We're doomed,"

"Look, I know with you tripping over a pebble can mean doom, but seriously, just calm down." Ryisa said, walking over with another, Aladdless wrench in hand. She had been on the other side of the room.

"No, now we're _really_ doomed," the Merb argued, pointing out a shattered window. Several dozen talon switchblades were already in view, kicking up sand as they approached.

"Why do they keep leaving and coming back?" Ryisa demanded, aggravated. Tossing her wrench down next to Tiggers, she crossed her arms over her chest and pouted.

"Reinforcements- they left and came back for reinforcements. Sulking won't help you survive that," Stork said in a flat tone, not even looking at her.

"Guys! Guys! You'll never believe this!" Lee yelled, running up to the trio.

"There's a swarm of talons coming our way? Trust me, we know," the strawberry blonde said, turning around.

"Well, actually, I was going to say that Luthor found another Screaming Doom of Death CD in Finns room, but, really? Crap."

Ryisa eyed the army with worry.

"They're here to invade Saharr, aren't they?"

No one spoke until Stork cut into the awkward silence. "Yes. Yes they are,"

"Is there a way we can fight them?" Tigger asked, also with a growing amount of concern. "The others already took our working skimmers, and I doubt the cannons are running- but even if they were, it'd be much easier if we could maneuver the Condor while using them…"

"Maybe we can just let them invade," the older woman said, "And just fight back when we have more supplies?"

"That's a bad idea for two reasons," Stork pointed out. "If they brought back reinforcements, it likely means they're going to try and make a stronghold on Saharr. And if they succeed in that, not only will it be harder to fight them, but they'll probably use this Terra as a base from which to invade other, nearby Terras,"

"What's the other reason?" Lee asked, knowing he wouldn't like it. Tiger Lily and Ryisa were thinking the same thing.

"That they'll probably kill us during the invasion anyway," the Merb added, still not looking at them.

"Guys! Guys! Check this out!" a young voice pleaded. The group jumped in surprise and saw Akakios standing by the doorway.

"What is it?" Ryisa asked warily, rubbing her arm, which was in pain again. She knew she shouldn't have been working when she was still in bandages, but Ryisa figured she'd be in bandages awhile- and if there was one thing she hated more than being injured, it was being useless. So it was no surprise she wouldn't sit around. "Did you find Finns CD too?"

"He lost his CD?" the boy asked, confused. "Uh, I didn't find a CD, but what I did find is _MUCH _cooler!"

Lee and Tigger shrugged and followed the child. Stork went back to repairs and after a pause Ryisa decided to join the group as well.

"See?! Isn't it GREAT?!"

The dark haired kid spread out his arms to emphasize the point, motioning to a large object backed up in the corner of Junkos room.

Everyones eyes widened.

--

The Council didn't respond to her question.

"Because, personally, I'd like to kill some of them myself, if you don't need them," Ashelle smirked. Rondanas eyes narrowed.

_I'll show you 'dead or alive'…_

Before the politicians could think, a blade pierced the air, directed precisely at the group of teens.

It wasn't Ashelles or Masons blades.

It was _Selenas._

Seeing the looks of confusion everyone was casting her, the seeming-nine year old rolled her eyes. "I'd pick _dead_, because in all of 5000 years I've NEVER seen any group of people so _ANNOYING!"_ her voice rose and she shrieked, swinging the scythe again towards Aladds head. He dodged just in time.

"Dude, she's DEMONIC!" he gasped.

"Trust me, you've seen nothing yet!" the girl laughed and aimed again.

One of the governors eyed at his leader with a look of concern, wrinkle lines spreading across his face as he looked around the room. "I know these types of hooligans- maybe we should just let security get this, before they tear down the building or get blood on the floor or something."

"If you really knew these hooligans, you'd know some of them are more _powerful _than the security," a politician cut into the debate and argued. With popcorn.

"So then isn't it certain they'll damage the building?"

"You don't understand. If _we _try anything on these kids, they'll just run away. Almost all of them are WANTED- we don't want wanted teenagers roaming the free Atmos, do we?"

"I guess not…"

It was obvious the man still didn't understand, from the perplexed look on his face as he eyed his superior with confusion.

"The Pathologican squadron is about matched to the kids, however. If they detain, or injure-"

"Or kill!" one cut in, earning himself a slap in the face.

"If they disarm them, THEN we can arrest the hooligans. Even if there's a few… bloodstains to clean up afterwards. It's like them doing the work for us,"

"Believe me, they won't be working long," Rondana murmured, jumping forward at Ashelle.

"Well, coming to spoil the surprises yet again, are we?" Ashelle asked with a raised eyebrow. Most of the other rogues were fending off aggravated security- the type of security that would help random foreign squads without permission- and the squadron themselves.

"Sorry to screw with your joyride," Rondana said sarcastically.

"I hope the Council doesn't mind bloodstains on the floor, then," Ashelle sneered and lunged at her.

One of the governors ducked as a projectile flew through the air and almost hit him in the forehead.

"This is more of a personal safety issue by now," he murmured, pale.

"Then get backup security!"

"You won't need security for this one- I'll deal with it," Ashelle promised and made to stab her opponent, who blocked her with a wooden rod that almost snapped in half. Ashelle eyed the door, making sure the security wouldn't add up. Though they would help this fight, that wouldn't help her get legalized.

"Told you she'd assist us," one of the politicians bragged. Ashelle smirked.

"These guys are worse than _talons_," Kai complained, deflecting a few guards near the wall. Civilians in the rain outside were staring and pointing.

"Yeah, easy for YOU, Mr. Super Dragon Guy-" Shadow teased, though with only a wave of her ax the guards were frightened enough to shrink away from her too, clearly not one for decapitation.

"This is bad for publicity," one of the counselors, sitting near the top of the platform, added as a few Atmosians dared to get a little closer, watching a bunch of wanted teenagers fight a bunch of oddly-clad foreigners.

"Don't do anything to them! The Catseye's hot!" one of the politicians' _wives _oogled, and the man glared.

"What? It's not like I don't know guys in politics cheat on their wives all the time. I might as well be getting a head start," she said, testing him with a grin as he leaned back. While he rolled his eyes, the others laughed- until Aerrow threw Mason into the booth and a large crack ran up the wood.

"Uh, guys, there's a fault in the platform…" one man paled all of a sudden and his colleagues' eyes widened.

"There's faults in your PLAN," one of them added. No one responded.

Finally one of the more powerful governors turned around and looked at all of them.

"All of you counselors except for me… get out of this room, _now,_"

Another projectile was thrown into the platform, and the tremble that went through the wood was enough to send his friends scattering.

Maximillian Saer found himself an anomaly among Atmosians. Shrouded in a dark cloak that made him stand out even more, he was only on Atmosia because of the incident he had heard was going on at the Council building.

That wasn't the first iffy occurrence that he knew of, but that was the first one that he had seen on Atmos TV.

Live.

Max groaned when he came across the building. The brick wall was burst open just as it had been on the screen, dusty debris scattered around below peoples' feet as they fought. A news skimmer was parked less than twenty feet away, glittering blue logos on the wing as a tall woman with an obnoxious cone hairdo was interviewing police on camera.

This was worse than he thought.

"I'm going to _kill_ Aladd for making this whole thing so public," a voice hissed next to him. "Just because he's great in the spotlight doesn't mean all people are,"

Max jumped, caught off guard by the teal-haired teenager standing next to him.

_Illusion abilities are great, aren't they? _Kai would have added, but was smart enough to know that just because he looked like a different person didn't mean he _was_ one. If he gave away his identity, even if he appeared different, he was still as good as dead.

Kai was just grateful that, as himself, he wasn't caught on TV.

The Onyxian fidgeted, eyes darting around the citizens crowding the area. Like most of his kind, he wasn't much of a people person.

"Who're you?"

"Name not important at the moment. I just ran outside to check out where the siren was coming from, if you will, since apparently the police are getting invol… oh bugger." Kai said, stepping back. He looked up, trying to see something past the building.

"What?" Max asked, but then rained off when he saw it.

"Oh, _damn_."

The crowd quieted as a small cruiser hovered for a moment on top of the building and then moved forward, deciding to land in the people. They scrambled and Kai grabbed the Onyxian, sprinting for the Council building.

"Better not get crushed, am I right?" he asked, slipping inside as the machine landed. The obnoxious newswoman looked distraught.

"Those are Cyclonians!" he gasped. The cameraman had fled, though the equipment was still filming her.

A dark silhouette sauntered out of the vehicle, her cloak trailing the ground behind her.

"Okay, now we've really got a problem," one of the governors said as Master Cyclonis turned to the groups. And this Cyclonis wasn't Kai trying to prank everyone, because he was inside the building.

Well, right next to the hole-in-the-wall. Let's say that counted. The Master looked up, brushing violet bangs out of her eyes.

"I have some unfinished business."

"Oh, shit," Ashelle muttered.

--

**And my friend, Sara (though we have a dozen names for her), wanted to be in the story, and I knew that setting up people IRL in Storm Hawks is usually a mistake, as we all learned in Meet Your Match.**

**So she's in the authors note!**

**Sara: Well, it's better than being in the summary…**

**Missy: That's the spirit! :DDD**

**Sara: *facepalm***

**(Sara isn't actually *here* right now, but you get the general idea)**

**Anyway… hope you liked the chapter! Lol, yeah. :D**


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